with the present as to receive the same in a Sollemn Assembly of the Cardinalls and Court of Rome expressing the contentment which he took therein by a fluent Oration the Copy whereof we have in Speed Fol. 991. And whereas in former times the French were Honoured with the Title of Most Christian and the Spaniard lately with the Title of The Catholick King This Pope in due acknowledgement of so great a Merit bestowes on Henry the more Glorious Attribute of The Defender of the Faith Which Bull being dated on the tenth of Octob. Anno 1521. is to be found exemplified in The Titles of Honour and thither I referr the Reader for his satisfaction Twenty three yeares the King enjoyed this Title by no other Grant then the Donation of Pope Leo. But then considering with himselfe that it was first Granted by that Pope as a Personall favour and not intended to descend upon his Posterity as also that the Popes by the reason of such differences as were between them might possibly take a time to deprive him of it he resolved to stand no longer on a ground of no greater certainty And therefore having summoned his High Court of Parliament to Assemble on the 29th of March Anno 1544. he procured this Title to be assured unto his Person and to be made perpetuall to his Heires and Successors for all times succeeding For which Consult the Statute 35. Hen. 8. Cap. 3. And by the Act it was ordained that whosoever should malitiously diminish any of his Majesties Royall Titles or seek to deprive him of the same should suffer death as in case of Treason and that from thenceforth the Stile Imperiall should no otherwise be exprest then in this forme following that is to say N. N. by the Grace of God King of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and on Earth of the Churches of England and Ireland the Supreme Head By vertue of which Act Queen Mary still retained this Title though she disclaimed the other of Supreme Head by Act of Parliament in the first yeare of her Reign as being incompetible with her submission and Relations to the See of Rome As for the Title of King of Ireland it was first given unto this King by a Parliament there holden in the Month of June 1541. under Sir Anthony Saint-Leiger being then Lord Deputy The Acts whereof being transmitted to the King and by him confirmed he caused himselfe to be first Proclaimed King of Ireland on the 23th of January then next following Which though it added somewhat to him in point of Title yet it afforded him no advantage in point of Power but that the name of King was thought to carry more respect and awe with it amongst the Irish then the Title of Lord which only till that time had been assumed by the Kings of England For otherwise the Kings of England from the first Conqâ—est of the Country by King Henry the second enjoyed and exercised all manner of Royalties and Preheminences which do or can belong to the greatest Kings Governing the same by their Vice-Gerâ—nts to whom sometimes they gave the Title of Lord Lieutenants sometimes Lord Deputies of Ireland then whom no Vice-Roy in the VVorld comes nearer to the Pomp and splendor of a Soveraign Prince And though they took no other Title to themselves then Lords of Ireland yet they gave higher Titles to their Subjects there many of which they advanced to the Honour and Degree of Earles And at the same time when King Richard the second contented himselfe with no Higher Stile then Lord of Ireland he exalted his great Favourite Robert d' Vere the tenth Earle of Oxon of that Family first to the Dignity and Stile of Marquesse of Dublin and after to the invidious Appellation of Duke of Ireland which he enjoyed unto his death The Countrey at the same time changed it's Title also being formerly no otherwise called in our Records then Terra Hiberniea or the Land of Ireland but from henceforth to be called upon all occasions in Acts of Parliament Proclamations and Letters Patents by the name of Regnum Hiberniae or the Realm of Ireland At the assuming of which new Title by this King the Scots were somewhat troubled but the Pope much more The Scots had then some footing in the North parts of that Iland and thought the taking of that Title by the Kings of England to tend to the endangering of their possession or at least to bring them under a Subjection of a Foreign Prince And on the other side it was complained of in the Court of Rome as a great and visible encroachment on the Pâ—pall Power to which it only appertained to erect new Kingdomes and that the injury was the greater in the present case because the King holding that Iland by no other Title as it was then and there pretended then by the Donation of Pope Adrian to King Henry the second was not withâ—ut the Popes consent to assume that Title But the King cared as little for the Pope as he did for the Scots knowing how able he was to make good all his Actings against them both and not only for enjoying this Title for the rest of his life but for the leaving of it to his Heires and Successors though afterward Queen Mary accepted a new Grant of it from the Pope then being Having thus setled and confirmed the Regall Style his next care was for setling and preventing all disputes and quarrells which might be raised about the Succession of the Crown if the Prince his son should chance to dye without lawfull issue as he after did In which as he discharged the trust reposed in him so he waved nothing of the Power which he had took unto himself by Act of Parliament made in that behalfe in the 35 year of his Reign as before wasnoted In pursuance whereof finding himself sensibly to decay but having his wits and understanding still about him he framed his last Wil and Testament which he caused to be signed and attested on the 30 of December Anno 1546 being a full Month before his death First published by Mr. Fuller in his Church History of Brittain Lib. 5. Fol. 243 244. And out of him I shall crave leave to transcribe so much thereof as may suffice to show unto posterity the sence he had of his own condition the vile esteem he had of his sinfull body what pious but unprofitable care he took for the Decent Interment of the same in what it was wherein he placed the hopes of Eternall life and finally what course he was pleased to take in the intailing of the Crown after his decease by passing over the line of Scotland and setling the Reversion in the House of Suffolk if his own children should depart without lawfull Issue as in fine they did In which and in some other points not here summed up the Reader may best satisfie himselfe by the words and tenour of the VVill which are
as willing as himself to have the Catholick Religion entertained in all parts of the Kingdom though neither of them seemed desirous to act any thing in it or take the envy on himself that he was well enough pleased with that reservednesse hoping they did not mean it for a precedent unto him or others who had a mind to shew their zeal and forwardness in the Catholick cause Have I not seen saith he that the hereticks themselves have broke the Ice in putting one of their own number I think they called him by the name of Servetus to a cruell death Could it be thought no crime in them to take that more severe course against one of their brethren for holding any contrary doctrine from that which they had publickly agreed amongst them And can they be so silly or so partial rather as to reckon it for a crime in us if we proceed against them with the like severity and punish them by the most extream rigour of their own example I plainly see that neither you my Lord Cardinal nor you my Lord Chancellor have any Answer to return to my present Argument which is sufficient to encourage me to proceed upon it I cannot act Canonically against any of them but such as live within the compasse of my jurisdiction in which I shall desire no help nor countenance from either of you But as for such as live in the Diocesse of Canterbury or that of Winchester or otherwise not within my reach in what place soever let them be sent for up by order from the Lords of the Council committed to the Tower the Fleet or any other Prison within my Diocesse And when I have them in my clutches let God do so and more to Bonner if they scape his fingers The Persecution thus resolved on home goes the bloody Executioner armed with as much power as the Law could give him and backed by the Authority of so great a King taking some other of the Bishops to him convents before him certain of the Preachers of King Edwards time who formerly had been committed to several prisons of whom it was demanded Whether they would stand to their former doctrines or accept the Queens Pardon and Recant To which it was generally and stoutly answered That they would stand unto their doctrines Hereupon followed that Inquisition for blood which raged in London and more or less was exercised in most parts of the Kingdom The first that led the way was Mr. John Râ—gers a right learned man and a great companion of that Tyndal by whom the Bible was translated into English in the time of King Henry After whose Martyrdom not daring to return into his own country he retired to Wittâ—berge in the Dukedom of Saxonie where he remained till King Edward's comming to the Crown and was by Bishop Ridley preferred to the Lecture of St. Pauls and made one of the Prebends Nothing the better liked of for his Patron 's sake he was convented and condemned and publickly burnt in Smithfield on the 4th of February On the 9th day of which Month another fire was kindled at Glocester for the burning of Mr. John Hooper the late Bishop thereof of whom sufficient hath been spoke in another place condemned amongst the rest at London but appointed to be burnt in Glocester as the place in which he most had sinned by sowing the seeds of false doctrine amongst the people The news whereof being brought unto him he rejoyced exceedingly in regard of that excellent opportunity which was thereby offered for giving testimony by his death to the truth of that Doctrine which had so oft sounded in their ears and now should be confirmed by the sight of their eyes The Wâ—rraâ—â— for whose burning was in these words following as I find it in the famous Library of Sir Robert Cotton Whereas John Hooper who of 〈◊〉 was called Bishop of Worcester and Gâ—ocester is by due order of the Laws Ecclesiastical condemned and judged for a most â—bstinate false and detestable Heretick and committed to our Secular Power to be burned according to the wholsome and good Laws of our Realm in that case provided Forasmuch as in those Oities and Diâ—cesses thereof he hath in times past preached and taught most pestilent Heresies and Doctrine to our Subjects there We have therefore given order that the said Hooper who yet persisteth obstinate and refuseth mercy when it was graciously offered shall be put to execution in the said City of Glocester for the example and terrour of others such aâ— he hath there seduced and mis-taâ—get and because he hath done most harm there And will that you calling to you some of reputation dwelling in that Shire such as you think best shall repair unto your said City and be at the said execution assisting our Mayor and Sheriffs of the same City in this behalf And for asmuch as the said Hooper is as other Hereticks a vain-glorious person and delighted in his tongue to persuade such as he hath seduced to persist in the miserable opinions that he haâ—h sown amongst them our pleasure is therefore and we require you to take order that the said Hooper be neither at the time of his execution nor in going to the place there suffered to speak at large but thither to be led quietly and in silence for eschewing of further infection and such inconveniences as may otherwise ensâ—e in this part Whereof fail ye not as ye tender our pleasure The like course was also taken with Bishop Earrar but that I do not find him restrained from speaking his mind unto the people as the other was A man of an implausible nature which rendred him the less agreeable to either side cast into prison by the Protestant and brought out to his death and martyrdom by the Popish party Being found in prison at the death of King Edward he might have fared as well as any of his ranck and order who had no hand in the interposing for Queen Jane if he had governed himself with that discretion and given such fair and moderate Answers as any man in his condition might have honestly done But being called before Bishop Gardiner he behaved himself so proudly and gave such offence that he was sent back again to prison and after condemned for an obstinate Heretick But for the sentence of his condemnation he was sent into his own Diocess there to receive it at the hand of Morgan who had supplanted and succeeded him in the See of St. Davids Which cruell wretch having already took possession could conceive no way safer for his future establishment than by imbruing his hands in the blood of this learned Prelate and to make sure with him for ever claiming a restitution or comming in by a Remitter to his former estate in reference whereunto he past sentence on him caused him to be delivered to the Civil Magistrate not desisting till he had brought him to the Stake on the third of March more glad to see
of the Court that for the better attaining of the Queens good grace they furnished the same at their own costs with new beds bedding and other necessary furniture in a very ample manner In which condition it continueth to this very day the Mastership of the Hospital being looked on as a good preferment for any well deserving man about the Court but for the most part given to some of their Majesties Chaplains for the encouragement of learning and the reward of their service How far the Queens example seconded by the Ladies about the Court countenanced by the King and earnestly insisted on by the Pope then being might have prevailed on the Nobility and Gentry for doing the like either in restoring their Church Lands or assigning some part of them to the like Foundations it is hard to say most probable it is that if the Queen had lived some few years longer either for love to her or for fear of gaining the Kings displeasure who was now grown too great to be disputed with if the point were questioned or otherwise out of an unwillingnesse to incur the Popes curse and the Churches censures there might have been very much done that way though not all at once For so it was that Philip having past over to Calais in the month of September Anno 1555. And the next day departing to the Emperors Court which was then at Brussels where he found his father in a resolution of resigning to him all his Dominions and Estates except the Empire or the bare title rather of it which was to be surrendred to his brother Ferdinand not that he had not a design to settle the Imperial Dignity on his Successors in the Realm of Spain for the better attaining of the Universal Monarchy which he was said to have aspired to over all the West but that he had been crossed in it by Maxiâ—ilian the eldest son of his brother Ferdinand who succeeded to his father in it and left the same hereditary in a manner to the Princes of the House of Austria of the German Rate For Charls grown weary of the world broken with warrs and desirous to apply himself to â—ivine meditations resolved to discharge himself of all civil employments and spend the remainder of his life in the Monastery of St. Justus situate among the Mountains of Extremadura a Province of the Realm of Castile In pursuance whereof having called before him the principal of the Nobility and great men of his several Kingdoms and Estates he made a Resignation of all his hereditary Dominions to King Philip his son on the 25th of October Anno 1555. having then scarce attained to the 55 year of his life to the great admiration of all the world After which act he found himself so abandoned by all his followers that sitting up laâ—e at night in conference with Seldiuâ— his brothers Embassador he had not a servant within call to light the Gentleman down stairs Which being observed by the Emperor he took the candle into his hands and would needs in his own person perform that offiâ—e and having brought him to the top of the stairs he said unto him Remember Seldius that thou hast known the Emperour Charls whom thou hast seen in the heâ—d of so many Armies reduced to such a low estate as to perform the office of an ordinary servant to his Brothers Minister Such was the greatness to which Philip had attained at the present time when the Queen was most intent on these new foundations As for the Pope he had published a Bull in print at the same time also in which he threatned Excommunication to all manner of persons without exception as kept any Church Lands unto themselves as also to all Princes Noblemen and Magistrates as did not forthwith put the same in execution Which though it did not much edifie at the present in the Realm of England yet it found more obedience and conformity in that of Ireland in which a Parliament being called toward the end of this year that is to say in the month of June Anno 1557. there past a Statute for repealing all Acts Articles and Provisions made against the See Apostolick since the 20th year of King Henry the 8th and for abolishing of several Eccelesiastical possessions conveyed to the Laity as also for the extinguishment of First-fruits and Twentieth parts no more than the yearly payment of the twentieth part having been laid by Act of Parliament on the Irish Clergy in the first and last clause whereof as they followed the example of the Realm of England so possibly they might have given a dangerous example to it in the other point if by the Queens death following shortly after as well K. Philip as the Pope had not lost all their power influence on the English Nation by means whereof there was no farther progresse in the restitution of the Abbey-Lands no more re-edifying of the old Religious Houses and no intention for the founding of any new Such as most cordially were affected to the interest of the Pope of Rome and otherwise were very perfect at their Ave Maria might love their Pater nâ—ster well but their Penny better Thus have we seen how zealously the Queen proceeded in her way towards the re-establishing of the Papal greatness Let us next look on the proceedings of the Cardinal Legat not as a Legat a latere from the Pope of Rome but as Legatus natus a Metropolitan or Archbishop of the Church of England As Cardinal-Legat he had been never forward in the shedding of blood declaring many ways his aversnesse from that severity which he saw divers of the English Bishops but especially the Butcher of London were so bent upon And when he came to act as Metropolitan he was very sparing in that kind as far as his own person was concerned therein though not to be excused from suffering the under Officers of his Diocess to be too prodigal of the blood of their Christian brethren He had been formerly suspected for a favourer of the Lutheran Doctrins when he lived at Rome and acted for the Pope as one of his Legats in the Council of â—rent Gardiner and Bonner and the rest of the sons of Thunder who called for nothing less than fire though not from heaven were willing to give out that he brought the same affections into England also and therefore somewhat must be done to keep up his authority and reputation both at home and abroad To which end he inserteth some particulars amongst the printed Articles of his Visitation to witnesse for him to the world that he had as great a care for suppressing the growth of Heresie as any Prelate in the Kingdom who would be thought more zealous because more tyrannical of which sort are the 14 15 and 17th Articles which concerned the Clergy that is to say Whether any of them do teach or preach erronious doctrine contrary to the Catholick faith and the Unity of the
and the magnificent Procession of the Knights of the Garter he takes his leave of the King and Queen is re-conveyed unto his lodging and on the 3d. of May embarks for Russiâ— accompanied with four good ships well frought with Merchandise most proper for the trade of that Country to which they were bound The costly presents sent by him from the King and Queen to the Russian Emperour and those bestowed upon himself I leave to be reported by him at his coming home and the relation of John Stow in his Annals of England fol. 630 Nor had I dwelt so long upon these particulars but to set forth the ancient splendor and magnificence of the State of England from which we have so miserably departed in these latter times Worse entertainment found an agent from the French King at his coming hither because he came on a worse errand Stafford an English Gentleman of a Noble Family having engaged himself in some of the former enterprises against this Queen and finding no good fortune in them retired with divers others to the Court of France from whence they endeavoured many times to create some dangers to this Realm by scattering and dispersing divers scandalous Pamphlets and seditious papers tending to the apparent defamation of the King and Queen And having got some credit by these practices amongst the Ministers of that King he undertakes to seize upon some Fortress or Port Town of England and put the same into the hands of the French In prosecution of which plot accompanied with some English Rebels and divers French Adventurers intermingled with them he seizeth on the strong Castle of Scurborough in the Coâ—nty of York From thence he published â— most traiterous and seditious Manifest in which he trayterously affirmed the Queen neither to be the Rightful Queen of this Realm nor to be worthy of the Title affirming that the King had brought into this Realm the number of twelve thousand Spaniards who had possess'd themselves of twelve of the best Holds in all the Kingdome upbraiding the Queen with her misgovernment and taking to himself the Title of Protector of the Realm of England But the Queen being secretly advertised of the whole design by the diligence of Dr Nicholas Wotton Dean of Canterbury who was then Ambassador in that Court Order was taken with the Earl of Westmorland and other Noble men of those parts to watch the Coasts and have a care unto the safety of those Northern Provinces By whom he was so closely watch'd and so well attended that having put himself into that Castle on the 24th he was pulled out of it again on the last of April from thence brought prisoner unto London condemned of Treason executed on the Tower Hill May 28. and on the morrow after three of his accomplices were hanged at Tyburn cut down and quartered But as it was an ill wind which blowes no body good so this French Treason so destructive to the chief conspiratours redounded to the great benefit and advantage of Philip. He had for three years borne the Title of King of England without reaping any profit and commodity by it But being now engaged in war with King Henry the 3d. though in pursute rather of his fathers quarrels than any new ones of his own he takes this opportunity to move the Queen to declare her self against the French to assist him in his war against that King for the good of her Kingdoms It was not possible for the Queen to separate her interest from that of her husband without hazarding some great unkindness if not a manifest breach between them She therefore yields to his desire and by her Proclamation of the 7th of June chargeth that King in having an hand not only in the secret practices of the Duke of Northumberland but also in the open rebellion of Wâ—at and his confederates She also laid unto his charge that Dudley Ashton and some other male contents of England were entertained in the house of his Ambassadors where they cotrived many treasons and conspiraâ—ies against her and her Kingdom that flying into France they were not only entertained in the Court of that King but relieved with pensions Finally that he had aided and encouraged Stafford with shipping men mony and munition to invade her Realm thereby if it were possible to dispossess her of her Crown She therefore gives notice to her subjects that they should forbear all traffick and commerce with the Realm of France from which she had received so many injuries as could admit no reparation but by open war And that she might not seem to threaten what she never intended she causeth an army to be raised consisting of one thousand horse four thousand foot and two thousand pioners which she puts under the command of the Earl of Pembrook and so dispatcheth them for Flanders to which they came about the middle of July King Philip had gone before on the 6th of that month and all things here were followed with such care and diligence that the army staid not long behind but what they did falls not within the compass of this present year All which remains to be remembred in this present year relates unto such changes and alterations as were made amongst the Governors of the Church and the Peers of the Realm It hath been signified before that White of Lincoln had prevailed by his friends in Court to be translated unto Winchester as the place of his Nativity and Education To whom succeeded Dr Thomas Watson Master of St John's College in Cambridge and Dean of Durham elected to the See of Lincoln before Christmass last and acting by that name and in that capacity against the dead body of Martin Bucer To Day of Chichester who deceased on the 2d of Aug. in the beginning of his year succeeded Dr John Christopherson a right learned man Mr of Trinity College in Cambridge and Dean of Norwich elected about the same time when the other was and acting as he did against Bucer and Fagius as also did Dr Cuthbert Scot who at that time was actually invested in the See of Chester upon the death of Dr â—oats the preceding Bishop And finally in the place of Aldrick Bishop of Carlisle who died on the 5th of March 1555. Dr Owen Oglethorp President of Magdalen College in Oxon and Dean of Windsor receives Consecration to that See in that first part of this year but the particular day and time thereof I have no where found Within the compass of this year that is to say the 4th year of the Reign of this Queen died two other Bishops Salcot or Capon Bishop of Salisbury and Chambers the first Bishop of Peterborough to the first of which there was no successor actually consecrated or confirmed for the reasons to be shewed anon in the Reign of this Queen But to the other succeeded Dr David Pool Dr of both laws Dean of the Arches Chancellor to the Bishop of Lichfield and Arch-Deacon of Derby elected
some decent Trimming And might not these be handsomly converted unto private uses to serve as Carpets for their Tables Coverlids to their Beds or Cushions to â—heir Chairs or Windows Hereupon some rude People are encouraged under-hand to beat down some Altars which makes way for an Order of the Counciâ—-Table to take down the rest and set up Tables in their places Followed by a Commission to be executed in all parts of the Kingdom for seising on the Premises to the use of the King But as the Grandees of the Court intended to defraud the King of so great a Booty and the Commissioners to put a Cheat upon the Court-Lords who employed them in it So they were both prevented in some places by the â—oâ—ds and Gentry of the Countrey who thought the Altar-Cloths together with the Copes and â—late of their several Churches to be as necessary for themselves as for any others â—his Change drew on the Alteration of the former Liturgâ— reviewed by certain Godly Prelates reduced almost into the same Form in which now it stands and confirmed by Parliament in the 5th and 6th years of this King but almost as unpleasing to the Zuinglian Faction as the former was In which Conjuncture of Affairs dyed King Edward the Sixth From the beginning of whose Reign the Church accounts the â—poche of a Reformation All that was done in oâ—der to it under Henrâ— the Eight seemed to be accidental onely and by the by rather designed on private Ends then out of any setled purpose to â—eform the Church and therefore intermitted and resumed again as those Ends had variance But now the Work was carried on wiâ—h a constant Hand the Prelates of the Church co-operating with the King and his Council and each contriving with the other for the Honour of it Scarce had they brought it to this pass when King Edwaâ—d dyed whose Death I cannot reckon for an Infelicity to the Church of England For being ill-principled in himself and easily inclined to embrace such Counsels as were offered to Him it is not to be thought but that the rest of the Bishopricks before sufficiently empoverished muâ—t have followed Durham and the poor Church be left as destitute of Lands and Ornaments as when she came into the World in Her Natural Nakedness Nor was it like to happen otherwise in the following Reign if it had lasted longer then a Nine Day 's Wonder For Dudley of Northumberland who then ruled the Roast and had before dissolved and in hope devoured the Wealthy Bishâ—prick of Durham might easily have possessed himself of the greatest part of the Revenues of York and Carlisle By means whereof He would have made himself more absolute on the North-side of the Trent then the poor Titular Queen a most virtuous Lady could have been suffered to continue on the South side of it To carry on whose Interess and maintain Her Title the poor remainder of the Church's Patrimony was in all probability to have been shared amongst those of that Party to make them sure unto the side But the Wisdom of this great Achitophel being turned to foolishness He fell into the Hands of the Publick Hang-man and thereby saved himself the labour of becoming his own Executioner Now MARY comes to Act Her Part and She drives on furiously Her Personal Interess had strongly byassed Her to the Church of Rome On which depended the Validity of Her Mother's Marriage and consequently Her own Legitimation and Succession to the Crown of this Realm And it was no hard matter for Her in a time unsettled to Repeal all the Acts of Her Brother's Reign and after to restore the Pope unto that Supremacy of which Her Father had deprived Him A Reign Calamitous and unfortunate to Her Self and Her Subjects Unfortunate to Her Self in the loss of Calais Calamitous to Her Subjects by many Insurrections and Executions but more by the effusion of the Bloud of so many Martyâ—s For though she gave a Check to the Rapacity of the former Times yet the Professours of the Reformation paid dearly for it whose Bloud she caused to be poured forth like Water in most parts of the Kingdom but no where more abundantly then in Bonner's Slaughter-House Which being within the view of the Court and under Her own Nose as the Saying is must needs entitle Her to a great part of those Horrid Cruelties which almost every day were acted by that bloudy Butcher The Schism at Frankâ—oâ—t took beginning in the same time also occasioned by some Zealots of the Zuinglian Faction who needs must lay aside the use of the Publick Liturgie retained by all the rest of the English Exiles the better to make way for such Forms of Worship as seemed more consonant to Calvin's Platform and the Rules of Geneva Which woful Schism so wretchedly begun in a Foreign Nation they laboured to promote by all sinister Practises in the Church of England when they returned from Exile in the following Reign The miserable Effects whereof we feel too sensibly and smartly to this very day But the great Business of this Reign related to the restitution of the Abbey-Lands end eavoured earnestly by the Queen and no less strenuously opposed by the then present Owners who had all the reason in the World to maintain that Right which by the known Laws of the Land had been vested in them For when the Monasteries and Religious Houses had been dissolved by several Acts of Parliament in the time of King Henry the Lands belonging to those Houses were by those Acts conferr'd upon the King and His Successours Kings and Queens of England Most of which Lands were either exchanged for others with the Lords and Gentry or sold for valuable Consideration to the rest of the Subjects All which Exchanges Grants and Sales were passed and Confirmed by the King's Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England in due Form of Law Which gave unto the Patentees as good a Title as the Law could make them This was well known unto the Pope and He knew well upon what ticklish Terms He stood with the Lords and â—ommons then Assembled in Parliament whom iâ— He did not gratifie with some Signal Favour He could not hope to be restored by them to His former Power for being deprived of His Supâ—emacy by Act of Parliament in the Time of King HENRY He could not be restored unto it but by Act of Parliamâ—nt in the time of Queen MARY and no such Ast could be obtained or compassed for Him without a Confirmation of Church-â—ands to the present Owners To which Necessity Pope Julius being forced to submit Himself He issueth a Decree accompanied with some Reasons which might seem to induce Him to it for confirming all such Lands on the present Occupants of which they stood possessed justo Titulo by a Lawful Title And this was onely reckoned by him for a Lawful Title First that they were possessed of the said Lands juxta Leges hujus Regni pro
as he was there he would neither intreat nor accept of him leave to depart but would measure his Marches in Advancing or Retiring as his own Judgment guided by Advice of his Council should deem expedient To the Trumpeter he returned this Answer That The Lord Huntly His Master was a young Gentleman full of Free Courage but more desirous of Glory then Judicious as it seemed how to win it That For number of Combatants it was not in his power to conclude a bargain but he was to employ all the Forces put under his Charge to the best advantage that he could That In case this were a particular Quarrel between the Governour and Him he would not refuse a particular Combate but being a difference between the two Kingdoms it was neither fit nor in his Power either to undertake the Adventure upon his own Fortune or bearing a Publique Charge to hazard himself against a man of Private condition Which said and the Earl of Warwick offering to take upon himself the Answer to Huntly's Challenge the Lord Protectour interposed and turning again unto the Herald Herald saith he tell the Lord Governour and the Lord Huntly that we have entred your Country with a sober Company which in the Language of the Scots is poor and mean your Army is both Great and Fresh but let them appear upon indifferent Ground and assuredly they shall have fighting enough And bring me word that they will so do and I will reward thee with a thousand Crowns These Braveries thus passed over on either side the Lord Protectour wisely considering with himself the uncertain Issue of pitched Fields and minding to preserve his Army for some other purposes thought fit to tempt the Scots by another Missive to yield unto his just Demands In which he wished them to consider That This War was waged amongst Christians And that Our Ends were no other then a just Peace whereto the endeavours of all Good men should tend That An Occasion not onely of a League but of a Perpetual Peace was now happily offered if they would suffer the two differing and Emulous Nations by uniting the Head to grow together That As this had formerly been sought by us so had it been generally Assented to by the Estates of Scotland That Therefore he could not but wonder why they should rather Treacherously recurr to Arms The events of War being usually even to the Victour sufficiently unfortunate then to maintain inviolate their Troth plighted to the Good of both Nations That They could not in reason expect that their Queen should perpetually live a Virgin-life That If she Married where could She bestow her self better then on a Puissant Monarch inhabiting the same Island and speaking the same Language That They could not choose but see what Inconveniences were the consequents of Foreign Matches Whereof they should rather make Tryal by the Examples of Others then at their Own Perill That Though he demanded nothing but Equity yet be so far abhorred the Effusion of Christian blood that if he found the Scots not utterly averse from an accord he would endeavour that some of the Contentions should be remitted That He would also consent that the Queen should abide and be brought up amongst them untill Her Age made Her Marriageable at what time She should by the Consent of the Estates Her self make choice of an Husband That In the mean time there should be a Cessation of Arms neither should the Queen be transported out of Her Realm nor entertain Treaty of Marriage with the French or any other Foreigner That if this they would Faithfully Promise he would forthwith peaceably depart out of Scotland And that Whatsoever Dammages the Country had suffered by this Invasion he would according to the esteem of indifferent Arbitratours make Ample Satisfaction What Effect this Letter might have produced if the Contents thereof had been communicated to the Generality of the Scotish Army it is hard to say Certain it is that those who had the Conduct of the Scot's Affairs as if they had been totally carried on to their own Destruction resolved not to put it to the venture but on the contrary caused it to be noised abroad That Nothing would content the English but to have the young Queen at their disposal and under colour of a Marriage to subdue the Kingdom which was to be reduced for ever to the form of a Province This false Report did so exasperate all sorts of people that they were instant for the Fight Which was as chearfully accepted by the Chief Commanders of the English Army in regard of some Intelligence which was brought unto them that the French were coming with twelve Galleys and fifty Ships to fall upon them in the Rear So as both Parties being resolved to try their Fortune they ranged their Armies in this manner The English having gained an Hill which was near their Shipping disposed their Army in this Order The Avant-Guard consisting of between three and four thousand Foot one hundred Men at Arms and six hundred light Horse-men was Conducted by the Earl of Warwick After which followed the Main-Battail consisting of about six thousand Foot six hundred Men at Arms and about one thousand light Horse-men Commanded by the Lord Protectour himself And finally the Arrear consisting of between three and four thousand Foot one hundred Men at Arms and six hundred Light-Horse was led by the Lord Dacres an Active though an Aged Gentleman The rest of the Horses was either cast into the Wings or kept for a Reserve against all Events And so the Battâ—il being dâ—sposed the Lord General in few words but with no small Gravity which to a Souldier serves in stead of Eloquence puts them in mind of the Honour which their Ancestours had acquired in that Kingdom of their own extream Disgrace and Danger if they fought not well That The Justness of their Quarrel should not so much encourage as enrage them being to revenge the Dishonour done to their King and to chastise the deceitfull dealings of their â—nemies That The multitude of their Enemies should nothing dismay them because they who come to maintain their own Breach of Faith besides that the Check of their Consciences much breaketh their spirit have the Omnipotent Arm of God mâ—st furious against them The Scots at the same time having improvidently crossed the Esk to find their Graves on this side of the water disposed their Army in this manner In the Avant-guard were placed about fifteen thousand Commanded by the Earl of Angus about ten thouâ—and in the Main-battail of whom the Lord Governour toâ—k the Conduct and so many more in the Arrear Led by the Valiant Gourdon Eaâ—l of Huntly And being ready to fall on on a false hope that the English were upon the flight the Lord Governour put them in remembrance how They could never yet be brought under by the English but were always able either to beat them back or to weary them out bidâ—â—ng them
which it was not possible that Wine could be provided for the Use of the Sacrament nor the Sick-man depart this life in peace without it And Secondly That the permitting of this Liberty to the People of England and the Dominions of the same should not be construed to the condemning of any other Church or Churches or the Vsages of them in which the contrary was observed So far the Parliament Enacted in relation to the thing it self to the subject Matter that the Communion should be delivered in both Kinds to all the good People of the Kingdoms But for the Form in which it was to be administred that was left wholly to the King and by the King committed to the Care of the Bishops of which more hereafter the Parliament declaring onely That a Godly â—xhortation should be made by the Ministers therein expressing the great Benefit and Comfort promised to them Which worthily receive the same and the great Danger threatned by God to all such persons as should unworthily receive it Now That there is not any thing either in the Declaration of this Parliament or the Words by which it was Enacted which doth not every way agree with Christ 's Institution appears most plainly by this Passage of Bishop Jewel I would demand saith he of Master Harding what things he would require to Christ's Institution of Words Christs Words be plain If Example Christ Himself Ministred in both Kinds If Authority Christ commanded His Disciples and in them all other Ministers of His Church to do the like If Certainty of His Meaning the Apostles endued with the Holy Ghost so practised the same and understood He meant so If Continuance of Time He â—ad the same to be continued till His Coming again Jewel against Hâ—rding Art 2. Sect. 4. Which said he thus proceedeth in the eight Sect. that is to say Some say that the Priests in Russia for lack of Wine used to Consecrate in Metheglin Others That Innocent the Eight for the like want dispensed with the Priests of Norway to Consecrate without Wine It were no Reason to binde the Church to the Necessity or Imbecillity of a few For otherwise the same Want and Imbecillity which Master Harding hath here found for the one part of the Sacrament may be found for the other For Arrianus De Rebus Indicis and Strabo in his Geography have written That There be whole Nations and Countries that have no Bread Therefore it should seem necessary by this Conclusion that in Consideration of them the whole Church should abstain from the other Portion of the Sacrament also and so have no Sacrament at all But because he may be suspected to be over-partial in favour of the Church of England let us see next what is confessed by Doctour Harding the first who took up Arms against it in Queen Elizabeth 's Time who doth acknowledge in plain Terms That The Communion was delivered in both kinds at Corinth as appeareth by Saint Paul and in many other places also as may moâ—t evidently be found in the Writings of many Antient Fathers And finally that it was so used for the space of six Hundred years and after Art 2. Sect. 8 28. But because Harding leaves the point at 600 and after I doubt not but we may be able on an easie search to draw the Practice down to six hundred more and possibly somewhat after also For Haymo of Halbeâ—stadt who flourished in the year 850. informs us that The Cup is called the Cup of the Communion of the Blood of Christ because all Communicate thereof And we are certified in the History of Aâ—toniâ—us Arch-Bishop of Florence that William Duke of Normandy immediately before the Battail near Hastings Anno 966 caused His whole Army to communicate in both Kinds as the use then was And finally It is observed by Thomas Aquinas who lived in and after the year 1260. That In some Churches of his Time the Cup was not given unto the People Which though he reckoneth fâ—r a Provident and Prudent Vsage yet by restraining it onely to some few Churches he shews the General Usage of the Church to have been otherwise at that time as indeed it was So that the Parliament in this Case appointed nothing but what was consonant to the Institution of our Lord and Saviour and to the Practice of the Church for 1260 years and upwards which is sufficient to discharge it from the Scandal of an Innovation Nor probably had the Parliament appointed this but that it was advised by such Godly Bishops as were desirous to Reduce the Ministration of that most Blessed Sacrament to the first Institution of it and the Primitive Practice the Convocation of that year not being enpowered to act in any Publick business for ought appearing on Record The next great Business was the Retriving of a Statute made in the 27th year of King Henry the Eight by which all Chanteries Colleges Free-Chapels and Hospitals were permitted to the Disposing of the King for Term of His Life But the King dying before He had taken many of the said Colleges Hospitals Chantâ—ries and Free-Chapels into His Possession and the Great Ones of the Court not being willing to lose so Rich a Booty it was set on Foot again and carried in this present Parliament In and by which it was Enacted That All such Colleges Free-Chapels and Chanteries as were in Being within five years of the present Session which were not in the Actual Possession of the said late King c. other then such as by the King's Commissions should be altered transported and changed together with aâ—â—â—anâ—â—â—s Laxds Tenements Rents Tithes Pensions Portions and other Hereditaments to the sâ—me belonging after the Feast of Easter then next coming should be adjudged and deemed and also be in the Actual and Real Possâ—ssion anâ— Sâ—isin of the King His Heirs and Succâ—ssours for ever And though the Hospitals being at that time an hundred and ten were not included in this Grant as they had been in that to the King decealed yet the Revenue which by this Act was designed to the King His Heirs and Successours must needs have been a great Improvement to the Crown if it had been carefully kept together as it was first pretended there being accounted 90. Colleges within the Compass of that Grant those in the Universities not being reckoned in that Number and no fewer then 2374. Free-Chapels and Chanteries the Lands whereof were thus conferred upon the King by Name but not intended to be kept together for His Benefit onely In which Respect it was very stoutly insisted on by Arch-Bishop Cranmer that the dissolving of these Colleges Free-Chapels and Chanteries should be deferred untill the King should be of Age to the intent that they might serve the better to furnish and maintain His Royal Estate then that so great a Treasure should be consumed in His Nonage as it after was Of this we shall speak more in the following year when
notwithstanding that they differed from the Government and Forms of Worship Established in the Church of England All which and more He grants by His Letters Patents bearing Date at Lâ—ez the Lord Chancellour's House on the twenty fourth of July and the fourth year of His Reâ—gn Which Grant though in it self an Act of most 〈◊〉 Compassion in respect of those Strangers yet proved the occasion of no small disturbance to the Proceedings of the Church and the quiet ordering oâ— the State for by suffering these men to live under another kind of Government and to Worship God after other Forms then those allowed of by the Laws proved in effect the 〈◊〉 up of one Altar against another in the midst of the Church and the erecting â—f a Common-Wealth in the midst of the Kingdom So much the more unfortunately peâ—â—itted in this present Conjuncture when such a Repâ—ure began to appear amongst our selves as was made wider by the coming in of these Dutch Reformerâ— and the Indulgence granted to them as will appear by the follâ—wing Story of John Hooper designed to the Bishoprick of Glocester which in brâ—ef was this John Hooper the designed Bishop of Glocester being bred in Oxford studious in the Holy Scriptures and well-affected unto those Beginnings of the Reformation whiâ—h had been countenanced by King Henry about the time of the Six Articles found himself so much in danger as put upon him the necessity of forsaking the Kingdom Settling himself at Zurich a Town of Switzerland he acquaints himself with Bulliâ—ger a Scholar in those Times of great Name and Note and having staiâ—d there till the Death of King Henry he returned into England bringing with him some very strong Affections to the Nakendness of the Zuinglian or Helvetian Churches though differing in Opinion from them in some Points of Doctrine and more especially in that of Predestination In England by his constant Preaching and learned Writings he grew into great Favour and Esteem with the Earl of Warwick by whose procurement the King most Graciously bestowed upon him without any seeking of his own the Bishoprick of Glocester which was then newly void by the Death of Wakeman the last Abbot of 〈◊〉 and the first Bishop of that See Having received the King's Letters Patents for his Preferment to that Place he applies himself to the Arch-Bishop for his Consecration concerning which there grew a difference between them For the Arch-Bishop would not Consecrate him but in such an Habit which Bishops were required to wear by the Rules of the Church and Hooper would not take it upon such Conditions Repairing to his Patron the Earl of Warwick he obtains from him a Letter to the Arch-Bishop desiring a forbearance of those things in which the Lord Elect of Glocester did crave to be forborne at his hands implying also that it was the King's desire as well as his that such forbearance should be used It was desired also that he would not charge him with any Oath which seemed to be burthenous to his Conscience For the Elâ—ct Bishop as it seems had boggled also at the Oath of paying Canâ—nical Obedience to his Metropolitan which by the Laws then and still in force he was bound to take But the Arch-Bishop still persisting in the Denyal and being well seconded by Bishop Ridley of London who would by no meanes yield unto it the King himself was put upon the business by the Earl of VVarwick who thereupon wrote to the Arch-Bishop this ensuing Letter RIght-Reverend Father and Right-Trusty and VVell-Beloved VVe Greet you well VVhereas VVe by the Advice of Our Council have Calaen and Chosen Our Right-VVell-Beloved and VVell-VVorthy Mr. John Hooper Professour of Divinity to be Our Bishop of Glocester as well for his Great Learning Deep Judgment and Long Study both in the Scriptures and other Profound Learning as also for his Good Discretion Ready Vtterance and Honest Life for that kind of Vocation c. From Consecrating of whom VVe understand you do stay because he would have you omit and let pass certain Rights and Ceremonies offensive to his Conscience whereby you think you should fall in Praemunire of Our Laws VVe have thought Good by Advice afore-said to dispence and discharge you of all manner of Dangers Penalties and Forfeitures you should run into and be in in any manner of way by omitting any of the same And this Our Letters shall be your sufficient Warrant and Discharge therefore Given under Our Signet at Our Castle of Windsore the fifth day of August in the fourth year of Our Reign This Gracious Letter notwithstanding the two Bishops wisely taking into consideration of what Danger and Ill Consequence the Example was humbly craved leave not to obey the King against his Laws and the Earl finding little hope of prevailing in that suit which would not be granted to the King leaves the new Bishop to himself who still persisting in his Obstinacy and wilfull Humour was finally for his Disobedience and Contempt committed Prisoner and from the Prison writes his Letters to Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr for their Opinion in the Case From the last of which who had declared himself no friend to the English Ceremonies he might presume of some Encouragement but that he had any from the first I have no where found The contrary whereunto will appear by his Answer unto John à Lasco in the present Case whereof more anon In which condition of Affairs Calvin addresseth his Letters to the Lord Protectâ—ur whom he desireth to lend the man an helping hand and extricate him out of those Perplexities into which he was cast So that at last the Differences were thus compromised that is to say That Hooper should receive his Consecration attired in his Episcopal Robes that he should be dispensed withall from wearing it at ordinary times as his dayly Habit but that he should be bound to use it when soever he Preached before the King in his own Cathedral or any other place of like Publick Nature According to which Agreement being appointed to Preach before the King he shewed himself apparelled in his Bishop's Robes namely a long Scarlet Chimere reaching down to the ground for his upper Garment changed in Queen Elizabeth's Time to one of Black Satten and under that a white Linen Rochet with a Square Cap upon his head which Fox reproacheth by the name of a Popish Attire and makes to be a great cause of Shame and Contumeliâ— to that Godly man And possibly it might be thought so at that time by Hooper himself who from thenceforth carried a strong Grudg against Bishop Ridley the principal man as he conceived and that not untruly who had held him up so closely to such hard Conditions not fully reconciled unto him till they were both ready for the Stake and then it was high time to lay aside those Animosities which they had hereupon conceived on against another But these thingâ— happened not I mean his Consecration
next followed not long after by Sir Thomas Holdcroft Sir Miles Partridg Sir Michael Stanhop Wingfield Banister and Vaughan with certain others for whose Commitment there was neither cause known nor afterwards discovered Onely the greater Number raised the greater Noise increas'd the Apprehension of the present Danger and served to make the Duke more Criminal in the Eyes of the People for drawing so many of all sorts into the Conspiracy Much time was spent in the Examination of such of the Prisoners as either had before discovered the Practice if any such Practice were intended or were now fitted and instructed to betray the Duke into the Power and Malice of his Enemies The Confessions which seemed of most importance were those of Palmer Crane and Hammond though the Truth and Reality of the Depositions may be justly questioned For neither were they brought face to face before the Duke at the time of his Trial as in ordinary course they should have been nor suffered loss of Life or Goods as some others did who were no more guilty then themselves And yet the Business stai d not here the Earl of Arundel and the Lord Paget and two of the Earl of Arundel's Servants being sent Prisoners after the rest upon Crane's detection It was further added by Palmer that on the last St. George's-Day the Duke of Sommerset being upon a journey into the North would have raised the People if he had not been assured by Sir William Herbert that no Danger was intended to him Six Weeks there passed between the Commitment of the Prisoners and the Duke's Arraignment which might have given the King more then leisure enough to finde the depth of the Design if either he had not been directed by such as the new Duke of Northumberland had placed about him or taken by a Solemnity which served fiâ—ly for it For so it happened that the Queen Regent of Scotland having been in France to see Her Daughter and being unwilling to return by Sea in that cold time of the year obtained leave of the King by the mediation of the French Ambassadour to take Her journey through England Which leave being granted She put Her self into the Bay of Portsmouth where She was Honourably received and conveyed towards London From Hampton-Court She passed by Water on the second day of November to St. Paul's Wharf From whence She rode accompanied with divers Noble Men and Ladies of England besides Her own Train of Scotland to the Bishop's-Palace Presented at Her first coming thither in the name of the City with Muttons Beefs Veals Poultry Wine and all other sorts of Provisions necessary for Her Entertainment even to Bread and Fewel Having reposed Her self two days She was conveyed in a Chariot to the Court at White-Hall accompanied with the Lady Margaret Douglass Daughter of Margaret Queen of Scots by Her second Husband together with the Duchesses of Richmond Suffolk and Northumberland besides many other Ladies of both Kingdoms which followed after in the Train At the Court-Gate She was received by the Dukes of Suffolk and Northumberland and the Lord High-Treasurer the Guard standing on both sides as She went along and being brought unto the King whom She found standing at the end of the Great Hall She cast Her self upon Her knees but was presently taken up and Saluted by Him according to the Free Custom of the English Nation Leading Her by the Hand to the Queen's Chamber of Presence He Saluted in like manner all the Ladies of Scotland and so departed for a while Dinner being ready the King conducted Her to the Table prepared for them where they dined together but had their Services apart The Ladies of both Kingdomes were feaâ—ted in the Queen 's Great Chamber where they were most Sumptuously Served Dinner being done that Her Attendants might have time to partake of the Entertainment the King shewed Her His Gardens Galleries c. and about four of the clock He brought Her down by the Hand into the Hall where He Saluted Her and so She departed to the Bishop's-Paâ—ace as before Departing towards Scotland on the sixth of that Moneth She rode through all the Principal Streets of London betwixt the Bishop's House and the Church in Shore-ditch attended by divers Noble Men and Women all the way She went But more particularly the Duke of Northumberland shewed himself with one hundred Horse each having his Javelin in his hand and fourty of them apparelled in Black Velvet Guarded with White and Velvet Caps and White Feathers and Chains of Gold about their Necks Next to these stood one hundred and twenty Horsemen of the Earl of Pembroke's with black Javelins Hats and Feathers Next to them one hundred of the Treasurer's Gentlemen and Yeomen with Javelins These ranks of Horsemen reaching from the Cross in Cheap-side to the end of Birching-Lane in Cornhill Brought as far as Shoreditch-Church She was committed to the care of the Sheriffs of London by whom She was attended as far as Walâ—ham Conducted in like manner by the Sheriffs of all the Counties through which She passed till She came unto the Borders of Scotland Her Entertainment being provided by the King's appointment at the Charge of the Counties Which Passages not being otherwise Material in the Course of this History I have adventured to lay down the better to express the Gallantry and Glory of the English Nation before Puritanism and the Humour of Parity occasioned the neglect of all the laudable Solemnities which antiently had been observed both in Church and State The Discourse raised on this Magnificent Reception of the Scotish Queen so filled all Mouths and entertained so many Pens that the Danger of the Duke of Sommerset seemed for a time to be forgotten but it was onely for a time For on the first of December the Duke being brought by water to Westminster-Hall found all things there prepared for his Arraignment The Lord High-Steward for the time was the Marquess of Winchester who took his place under a Cloath of Estate raised three steps higher then the rest of the Scaffold The Peers to the number of twenty seven sitting one step lower Amongst these were the Duke of Northumberland the Marquess of North-hampton and the Earl of Pembroke who being Parties to the Charge ought in all Honesty and Honour to have excused themselves from sitting in Judgment on him at the time of his Trial. But no Challenge or Objection being made or allowed against them they took place with the rest The Court being sate and the Prisoner brought unto the Bar the Charge against him was divided into five Particulars viz. Firâ—â— His design of Raising men in the North Parts of the Realm and of assembling men at his House to kill the Duke of Northumberland 2. A resolution to assist his Attachment 3. The Plot for killing the Gens d' Arms. 4. His intent for raising London 5. His purpose of assaulting the Lords and devising their Deaths The whole Impeachment managed in the
more inclinable to the Lutheran but where his profit was concerned in the spoil of Images then thâ—â— Zuinglian Doctrines so well beloved in general by the Common People that divers dipt their Handkerchiefs in his Blood to keep them in perpetual Remembrance of him One of which being a sprightly Dame about two years after when the Duke of Northumberland was led through the City for his opposing the Title of Queen Mary ran to him in the Streets and shaking out her bloody Handkerchief before him Behold said she the Blood of that worthy man that good Vncle of that Excellent King which shed by thy malicious Practice doth now begin apparently to revenge it self on thee The like Opinion also was conceived of the business by the most understanding men in the Court and Kingdom though the King seemed for the present to be satisfied in it In which opinion they were exceedingly confirmed by the Enlargment of the Earl of Arundel and restoring of Crane and his Wife to their former Liberty but most especially by the great Endearments which afterwards appeared between the Duke of Northumberland and Sir Thomas Palmer and the great confidence which the Duke placed in him for the Advancement of his Projects in behalf of the Duke of Suffolk of which more hereafter But the Malice of his Enemies stayed not here extending also to his Friends and Children after his Decease but chiefly to the eldest Son by the second Wife in favour of whom an Act of Parliament had been passed in the thirty second year of the late King Henry for the entailing on his Person all such Lands Estates and Honours as had been or should be purchasâ—d by his Father from the twenty fifth day of May then next foregoing Which Act they caused to be repealed at the end of the next Session of Parliament which began on the morrow after the Death of the Duke whereby they strip'd the young Gentleman being then about thirteen years of Age of his Lands and Titles to which he was in part restored by Queen Elizabeth who in pity of his Father's Suffâ—rings and his own Misfortunes created him â—arl of Hertford Viscount Beauchamp c. Nor did the Duke's Fall end it self in no other ruin then that of his own house and the Death of the four Knights which suffered on the same account but drew along with it the â—emoval of the Lord Rich from the Place and Office of Lord Chancellour For so it happened that the Lord Chancellour commiserating the Condition of the Duke of Sommerset though formerly he had shewed himself against him dispatched a Letter to him concerning some Proceedings of the Lords of the Council which he thought fit for him to know Which Letter being hastily superscribed To the Duke with no other Title he gave to one of his Servants to be carried to him By whom for want of a more particular direction it was delivered to the hands of the Duke of Norfolk But the Mistake being presently found the Lord Chancellour knowing into what hands he was like to fall makes his Address unto the King the next morning betimes and humbly prays that in regard of his great Age he might be discharged of the Great Seal and Office of Chancellour Which being granted by the King though with no small difficulty the Duke of Northumberland and the Earl of Pembroke forward enough to go upon such an Errand are sent on the twenty first of December to receive the Seal committed on the morrow after to Doctour Thomas Goodwin Bishop of Ely and one of the Lords of the Privy Council Who afterwards that is to say on the two and twentieth of January was sworn Lord Chancellour the Lord Treasurer Paulet giving him the Oath in the Court of Chancery Next followed the Losses and Disgraces suffered by the Lord Paget on the Duke's account To whom he had continued faithfull in all his Troubles when Sir William Cecil who had received greater Benefits from him and most of the Dependants on him had either deserted or betrayed him His House designed to be the place in which the Duke of Northumberland and the rest of the Lords were to be murthered at a Banquet if any credit may be given to the Informations for which Committed to the Tower as before is said But having no sufficient Proof to warrant any further Proceeding to his Condemnation an Enquiry is made not long after into all his Actions In the return whereof it was suggested That he had sold the King's Lands and Woods without Commission That he had taken great Fines for the King's Lands and applyed them to his proper use and That he had made Leases in Reversion for more then one and twenty years Which Spoyl is to be understood of the Lands and Woods of the Dutchy of Lancaster of the which he was Chancellour and for committing whereof he was not onely forced to resign that Office but condemned in a fine of six thousand pounds not otherwise to be excused but by paying of four thousand pounds within the year This Punishment was accompanied with a Disgrace no less grievous to him then the loss both of his Place and Money He had been chosen into the Society of the Garter An. 1548. when the Duke of Sommerset was in Power and so continued till the fifteenth of April in the year next following Anno 1552. At what time Garter King of Aâ—ms was sent to his Lodging in the Tower to take from him the Garter and the George belonging to him as a Knight of that most Noble Order Which he suffered willingly to be done because it was His Majestie 's Pleasure that it should so be More sensible of the Affront without all question then otherwise he would have been because the said George and Garter were presently afâ—er sent by the King to John Earl of Warwick the Duke of Northumberland's eldest Son Admitted thereupon into that Society So prevalent are the Passions of some Great Persons that they can neither put a measure upon their Hatred nor an end to their Malice Which two last Passages though more properly belonging to the following year I have thought fit to place in this because of that dependance which they have on the Fall of Sommerset The like Ill-Fortune happened at the same time also to Doctour Robert Farrar Bishop of St. David's who as he had his Preferments by him so he suffered also in his Fall not because Guilty of the Practice or Conspiracy with him as the Lord Paget and the rest were given out to be but because he wanted his Support and Countenance against his Adversaries A Man he was of an unsociable disposition rigidly self-willed and one who looked for more Observance then his place required which drew him into a great dislâ—ke with most of his Clergy with none more then the Canons of his own Cathedral The Faction headed amongst others by Doctour Thomas Young then being the Chantour of that Church and afterwards advanced by Queen
then Ordinary Diligence so was he encourâ—ged thereunto by a very Liberal Exhibition which he received annually from the late King Henry But the King being dead his Exhibition and encouragments dyed also with him So that the Lamp of his life being destitute of the Oyl which fed it after it had been in a langâ—ishing condition all the rest of hâ—s King's Reign was this year unfortunately Extinguâ—shed unfortunately in regard that he dyed distrâ—cted to the great Greif of all that knew him and the no small sorrow of maâ—y who never saw him but onely in his painful and laboâ—ious Writings Wâ—ich Writâ—ngs being by him Presented to the hands of King Henry came aâ—terwards into â—he power of Sr. John Cheâ—k Schole-master and Secretary for the Lâ—tine tongue to the King now Reigning And though collâ—cted Principally for the uâ—e of the Crown yet on the death of the young King his Tuâ—our kept thâ—m to himself as long as he lived and left them at his death to Henry his Eldest Son Secretary to the Councel Established at Yoâ—k for the Nâ—râ—hern parts From Cheâ—k but not without some intermediate conveyances four of them came into the possession of William 〈◊〉 of Leicâ—sâ—e shiâ—e who having served his turn of them as well as he could in his dâ—scription of that County bestowed them as a most choise Rarity upon Oxford Library where the Oâ—â—ginals â—tâ—ll â—emain Out of this Treasury whilest it remained entire in the hands of Cheek the learned Campden was supplyed with much Excellent matter toward the making up of his description of the â—sles of Britain but not without all due acknowledgment to his Benefactour whom he both frequent citeâ—h and very highly commendeth for his pains and industry In the last place comes in Cardanus an eminent Philosopher born in Italy and one not easily over matched by the then supposed Matchless Scâ—liger having composed a Book Entituled â— De varietate Rerum with an Epistlâ— Dedicatory to King Edward the Sixth he came over this year into England to present it to him which gave him the Occasion of much conference with â—â—m In which he found â—uch dexterity in Him for Encountring many of his Paradoxes in natural Philosophy that he seemed to be astonished between Admiration and Delight and divulged his Abilities to be miraculâ—uâ— Some Passages of which discourse Cardanus hath left upon Record in these words ensuâ—ng Decimâ—â—m quintum adhuc agâ—bat Annum cum interrogobat Latine c. Being yet saith he but of the age of fifteen years he asked me in Latine in which tongue he utterred his mind no less eloquently and readily then I could do my self what my Bookâ— which I had dedicated unto him De varietate Rerum did contain I answered that in the first Chapter was shewed the cause of Comâ—ts or blazing-stars which hath been long sought for and hitherto scarce fully found What cause sayd he is that The concourâ—e or meeting of the light of the wandring Planets or stars To this thâ— King thus replyed again For as much said he as the motion of the stars keepeth not one course but is diverse and variable by continual Alteration how is it then that the cause of these Comets doth not quickly vâ—de or vanish or that the Comet doth not keep one certain and uniform course and motion with the said stars and Planets Whereunto I anâ—wered that it â—oved indeed but with a far swifter motion then the Planets by reaâ—on of the diversity of Aspects as we see in Christal and the Sun when a Rainbow rebounds on a Wall for a little change makes a great difference of the place The King rejoyned How can that be done without a subject as the Wall is the Subject to the Rainbow To which I answered That as in the Galaxia or Via lactea and in the Reflection of Lights when many are set near one another they do produce a certain Lucid and bright Mean Which Conference is thus shut up by that Learned Men That he began to favour Learning before he could know it and knew it before he could tell what use he had of it And then bemoans his short life in these words of the Poet Immodicâ—s brevis est Aetas rara Senectus Anno Reg. Edw. Sexti 7º Anno Dom. 1552 1553. SUch being the excellent Abilities of this hopeful Prince in Matters of Abstruser Learning there is no question to be made but that he was the Master of so much Perspicacity in his own Affairs as indeed he was which might produce both Love and Admiration in the Neighbouring Princes Yet such was the Rapacity of the Times and the Unfortunateness of his Condition that his Minority was abused to many Acts of Spoil and Rapine even to an high degree of Sacrilege to the raising of some and the enriching of others without any manner of improvement to his own Estate For notwithstanding the great and most inestimable Treasures which must needs come in by the spoil of so many Shrines and Images the sale of all the Lands belonging to Chanteries Colleges Free Chapels c. And the Dilapidating of the Patrimony of so many Bishopricks and Cathedral Churches he was not onely plunged in Debt but the Crown-Lands were much diminished and impaired since his coming to it Besides which spoils there were many other helps and some great ones too of keeping him both beforeâ—hand and full of Money had they been used to his Advantage The Lands of divers of the Halls and Companies in London were charged with Annual Pensions for the finding of such Lights Obits and Chantry-Priests as were founded by the Donours of them For the redeeming whereof they were constrained to pay the sum of Twenty Thousand Pounds to the use of the King by an Order from the Council-Table not long before the payment of the first Money for the sale of Boloign Anno 1550. And somewhat was also paid by the City to the King for the Purchase of the Borough of Southwark which they bought of him the next year But the main glut of Treasure was that of the four hundred thousand Crowns amounting in our Money to 133333 l. 13 s. 4 d. paid by the French King on the sâ—rrendry of the Town and Territory of 〈◊〉 before remembred Of which vast sum but small in reference to the loss of so great a strength no less then fourscore thousand pounds was laid up in the Tower the rest assigned to publick uses for the peace and safety of the Kingdom Not to say any thing of that great Yearly Profit which came in from the Mint after the entercourse settled betwixt Him and the King of Sweden and the decrying so much Base Money had begun to set the same on work Which great Advantages notwithstanding He is now found to be in Debt to the Bankers of Anâ—weâ—p elsewhere no less then 251000 l of English money Towards which the sending of his own Ambassadours into France and the entertainment of the
with the suppression of such Bishopricks and Collegiate Churches as either lay â—urthest off or might best be spared In reference whereunto it was concluded in a Chapter held at Westminster by the Knights of the Garter That from thenceforth the said most noble Order of the Garter should be no longer entâ—tuled by the Name of St. George but that it should be called the Oâ—der of the Garter onely and that the Feast of the said Order should be celebrated upon Whitson-Eve Whitson-day and Whitson-Monday and not on St. George's day as before it was And to what end was this concluded and what else was to follow upon this Conclusion but the dissolving of the Free-Chapel of St. George in the Castle of Windsor and the transferring of the Order to the Chapel of King HENRY the Seventh in the Abbey of Westminster Which had undoubtedly been done and all the Lands thereof converted to some powerful Courtiers under pretence of laying them to the Crown if the King's Death which happened within four Moneths after had not prevented the Design and thereby respited that Ruin which was then intended The like preservation happened at the same time also in the Church of Durham as liberally endowed as the most and more amply priviledged then the best in the King's Dominions The Bishops hereof by Charter and long Prescription enjoyed and exercised all the Rights of a County Palatine in that large Tract of Ground which lyes between the Tees and the Tine best known in those Parts by the Name of the Bishoprick the Diocess containing also all Northumberland of which the Bishops and the Percies had the greatest shares No sooner was Bishop Tonstal committed to the Tower which was on the Twentieth of December 1551. but presently an Eye was cast upon his Possessions Which questionless had followed the same fortune with the rest of the Bishopricks if one more powerful then the rest had not preserved it from being parcelled out as the others were on a â—â—rong Confidence of getting it all unto himself The Family of the Percies was then reduced to such a point that it seemed to have been quite expired a Family which first came in with the Norman Conquerour by whom enriched with most of the forfeited Estates of Morchar Gospatrick and Waltheof the three last Earls of Northumberland of the Saxon Race But this Line ending in the latter times of King HENRY the First Josseline of Lorain descended from the Emperour CHARLES the Great and one of the younger Brothers of Adeliza the last Wife of the King enrich'd himself by Marriage with the Heir-General of this House upon condition that keeping to himself the Arms of his own Family he should assume the Name of Percy to remain always afterward unto his Posterity Advanced in that respect by the Power and Favour of John of Gaunt to the Rank and Title of the Earls of Northumberland at the Coronation of King Richard the Second They held the same with great Power and Honour the short interposing of the Marquess Mountacute excepted onely till toward the latter end of King Henry the Eighth At what time it happened that Henry Lord Peircy the sixth Earl of this House had incurred the heavy displeasure of that King First for an old affection to the Lady Ann Bollein when the King began first to be enamoured of her excellent Beauties and afterwards for denying to confess a Precontract to have been formerly made between them when the King now as weary of her as before he was fond was seeking some fair Pretences to divorce himself from her before she was to lose her Head He had no Children of his own and Thâ—mas his Brother and next Heir was to his greater grief attainted of Treason for being thought to have a chief hand iâ— the Northern Rebellion Anno 1536. In both respects he found himself at such a loss and the whole Family without hope of a Restitution to its antient splendour that to preserve himself from running into further danger he gave unto the King the greatest part of that fair Inheritance and dying not long after left his Titles also to the King 's disposing The Lands and Titles being thus fallen into the Crown continued undisposed of till the falling of the Duke of Somerset when Dudley Earl of Warwick having some projections in his Head beyond the greatness of a Subject advanced himself unto the Title of Duke of Northumberland not doubting but he should be able to possess himself in short time also of all the Landâ— of that Family which were then remaining in the Crown To which Estate the Bishoprick of Duâ—ham and all the Lands belonging to it could not but be beheld as a fair Addition if at the least it might be called an addition which was of more value then the Patrimony to which it was to have been added He had long Reigned without a Crown suffering the King for some years to enjoy that Title which was to be transferred if all Contrivances had held good upon one of his Sons whom He designed in Marriage to the eldest Daughter of the House of Suffolk And then how easie was it for him having a King of his own begetting a Queen of his own making the Lords of the Council at his beck and a Parliament to serve his turn for all occasions to incorporate both the Lands of the Peircies and the Patrimony of that Church into one Estate with all the Rights and Privileges of a County Palatine Count Palatine of Durham Prince Palatine of Northumberland or what else he pleased must be the least he could have aimed at in that happy Conjuncture happy to him had the Even been answerable unto his Projections but miserable enough to all the rest of the Kingdom who should not servilely submit to this Glorious Upstart Upon which Grounds as the Bishoprick of Durham was dissolved by Act of Parliament under pretence of patching up the King's Revenue so the greatest part of the Lands thereof had been kept together that they might serve for a Revenue to the future Palatine But all these Projects failing in the death of the King and his own Attaindure not long after the Peircies were restored by Queen Mary to their Lands and Honours as the Bishop was unto his Liberty and to most of his Lands it being almost impossible that such a fair Estate should fall into the hands of the Courtiers and no part of it be left sticking in those Glutinous Fingers For to begin the Year withall the King was taken with a very strong Cough in the Moneth of January which at last ended in a Consumption of the Lungs the Seeds of which Malignity were generally supposed to have been sown in the last Summer's Progress by some over-heatings of himself in his Sports and Exercises But they that looked more narrowly into the matter observed some kind of decayings in him from the time that Sir Robert Dudley the third Son of Northumberland was admitted into a place
a Mercy had advanced Her to That Therefore She should chearfully take upon Her the Name Title and Estate of Queen of England France and Ireland with all the Royalties and Preheminencies to the same belonging Receiving at their hands the First-Fruits of the Humble Duty now tendred by them on their Knees which shortly was to be payed to Her by the rest of the Kingdom This Speech being ended the poor Lady found Her Self in a great Perplexity not knowing whether she Should more lament the Death of the King or Her Adoption to the Kingdom the first Loss not to be repaired the next Care possible to be avoided She looked upon the Crown as a great Temptation to resist which She stood in need of all the Helps which both Philosophy and Divinity could suggest unto Her And She knew also that such Fortunes seldom knocked twice for entrance at the same Man's Gate but that if once refused they are gone for ever Taking some time therefore of Deliberation She summoned a Council of Her purest Thoughts by whose Advice half drownned in Tears either as sorrowing for the King's Death or fore-seeing Her own She returned an Answer in these Words or to this Effect That The Laws of the Kingdom and Natural Right standing for the King's Sister She would beware of burthening Her weak Conscience with a Yoke which did belong to them That She understood the Infamy of those who had permitted the violation of Right to gain a Scepter That it were to mock God and deride Justice to scruple at the stealing of a Shilling and not at the Vsurpation of a Crown Besides said She I am not so young nor so little read in the Guils of Fortune to suffer my self to be taken by them If she inrich any it is but to make them the Subject of her Spoil If she raise others it is but to pleasure her Self with their Ruins What shâ— adored but yesterday is to day her Pastime And if I now permit her to adorn and Crown me I must to Morrow suffer her to crush and tear me in pieces Nay with what Crown doth she Present me A Crown which hath been Violently and Shamefully wrested from Katharine of Arragon made more unfortunate by the Punishment of Ann Bulloign and others that wore it after Her And why then would you have me add my Blood to theirs and to be the third Victime from whom this Fatal Crown may be ravished with the Head that wears it But in Case it should not prove Fatal unto me and that all its Venom were consumed if Fortune should give me Warranties of her Constancy Should I be well advised to take upon me these Thorns which would dilacerate though not kill me outright to burthen my self with a Yoke which would not fail to torment me though I were assured not to be strangled with it My Liberty is better then the Chain you proffer me with what pretious stones soever it be adorned or of what Gold soever framed I will not exchange my Peace for Honourable and pretious Jealousies for Magnificent and Glorious Letters And if you love me sincerely and in good earnest you will rather wish me a secure and quiet Fortune though mean then an exalted Condition exposed to the Wind and followed by some dismal Fall It had been happy for Her self Her Fathers and their several Families if they had suffered themselves to be overcome by such powerfull Arguments which were not onely persuasive but might seem convincing had they not all been fatally hurried unto their own Destruction But the Ambition of the two Dukes was too Strong and Violent to be kept down by any such prudent Considerations So that being wearied at the last with their Importunities and overcome by the entreaties of Her Husband whom She dearly loved She submitted unto that necessity which She could not vanquish yielding her Head with more unwillingness to the Ravishing Glories of a Crown then afterwards She did to the Stroak of the Ax. The Point being thus concluded on the two Dukes with all the rest of the Lords of the Council swore Allegeance to her And on the same day about five of the Clock in the afternoon they caused Her Solemnly to be Proclaimed Queen of England France and Ireland c. in many of the principal Streets in London and after by Degrees in most of the Chief Cities Towns and Places of greatest Concourse and Resort of People In which Proclamation it was signified That by the Letters Patents of the late King Edward bearing Date the twenty first of June last past the Lady Jane Gray Eldest Daughter to the Duchess of Suffolk had been declared His true and lawfull Successour to the Crown of England the same to be enjoyed after Her Decease the Heirs of Her Body c. as in the said Letters Patents more especially did at large appear Which Proclamation though it was published in the City with all due Solemnities and that the Concourse of People was exceeding great yet their Acclamations were but few which served as a sufficient Argument to the Friends and Followers of the Princess Mary that they were rather drawn together out of Curiosity to behold some unusual Spectacle then out of any purpose to congratulate at the Queen's Advancement And so far some of of them declared their dislike thereof that the next Day one Gilbert Pot was set on the Pâ—llory in Cheâ—pside his Ears first nailed and afterwards cut off for certain words which he had spoken at the Publishing of the Proclamation a Trumpet sounding at the Time of the Execution and an Herald in his Coat of Arms publickly noting his Offence in a Form prescribed A Severity neither safe nor necessary the party being of no better Condition then a Vintner's Boy as the Case then stood For the next day the Lords received Advertisement from divers hands that many persons of Quality were drawn together at Kenning-Hallâ—Castle in Norfolk to offer their Service and assistance to the Princess Mary who finding by the Answer which She had received from the Lords of the Council that no good was otherwise to be be done resolved not to be wanting to Her own Pretensions and to that end gave chearfull Entertainment to all comers which either favoured Her Title or embraced Her Religion Amongst such Gentlemen as were certified to the Lords of the Council I finde the names of the Earl of Bath Sir Thomas Wharton son to the Lord Wharton Sir John Mordant Son to the Lord Mordant Sir William Drury Sir John Shelton Sir Henry Bedingfield Mr. Henry Jenningham Mr. John Sulierd Mr. Richard Higham of Lincoln's-Inn It was advertised also that the Earl of Sussex and Mr. Henry Ratcliff his Son were coming towards Her with their Forces which last Advertisement gave the Business some appearance of Danger for what else was to be expected but that the Countenance and Encouragement of so great a Person might draw many more unto the side who otherwise would have
the 9th the second brother and next heir to the King deceased Katherine de Medices the Relict of Henry the 2d and the Mother of Charls layes claim to the Regency for who could have a greater care either of the young Kings person or estate than his natural Mother But against her aâ— being a meer stranger to the Nation and affairs of France Anthony of Burboâ— Duke of Vendosme by descent and King of Navarr at the least in Title in the Right of Joan d' Albret his wife the sole Heir of that Crown layes his claim unto it as being the first Prince of the blood and therefore fitter to be trusted with the Regency by the rules of that government The Guisian faction joyn themselves to that of the Queen of whom they better knew how to make advantage than they could of the other and to that end endeavour by all subtil artifices to invest her in it To this end they insinuate themselves into the Duke perswade him either to relinquish his demands of the Regency or to associate himself with the Queen-Mother in the publick government and to joyn counsels with the Catholick party for suppressing the Hâ—gonots Which that they might allure him to or at least take him off from his first persute they offered to procure a Divorce from his present wife and that instead of holding the Kingdom of Navarr in Right of his wife he should hold it in his own personal capacity by a grant from the Pope his wife being first deprived of it by his Holiness as suspected of Lutheranism that being divorced from his wife he should marry Mary Queen of the Scots with whom he should not only have the Kingdom of Scotland but of England also of which Elizabeth was to be deprived on the same account that for the recovery of that Kingdom he should not only have the Popes authority and the power of France but also the forces of the King of Spain and finally that the Catholick King did so much study his contentment that if he would relinquish his pretensions to the Crown of Navarr he should be gratified by him with the soverainty and actual possession of the Isle of Sardinia of which he should receive the Crown with all due solemnities By which temptations when they had render'd him suspected to the Protestant party and thereby setled the Queen-Mother in that place and power which so industriously she aspired to they laid him by as to the Title permitting him to live by the air of hope for the short time of his life which ended on the 17th of November Anno 1562. And so much of the game was plaid in earnest that the Dâ—ke of Guise did mainly labour with the Pope to fulminate his Excommunications against Elizabeth as one that had renounced his authority apostated from the Catholick Religion and utterly exterminated the profession of it out of her Dominions But the Duke sped no better in this negotiation than the Count of Feria did before The Pope had still retained some hope of regaining England and meant to leave no way unpractised by which he might obtain the point he aimed at When first the See was vacant by the death of Pope Paul the 4th the Cardinals assembled in the Conclave bound themselves by oath that for the better setling of the broken and distracted estate of Christendome the Council formerly held at Trent should be resumed withall convenient speed that might be Which being too fresh in memory to be forgotten and of too great importance to be laid aside the new Pope had no sooner setled his affairs in Rome which had been much disordered by the harshness and temerity of his predecessor but he resolved to put the same in execution For this cause he consults with some of the more moderate and judicious Cardinals and by his resolution and dexterity surmounts all difficulties which shewed themselves in the design and he resolved not only to call the Council but that it should be held in 〈◊〉 to which it had been formerly called by Pope Paul the 3d. 1545. that it should rather be a continuance of the former Council which had been interrupted by the prosecution of the wars in Germany than the beginning of a new and that he would invite unto it all Christian Princes his dear daughter Queen Elizabeth of England amongst the rest And on these terms he stood when he was importuned by the Ministers of the Duke of Gvise to proceed against her to a sentence of Excommunication and thereby to expose her Kingdoms to the next Invader But the Pope was constantly resolved on his first intention of treating with her after a fair and amicable manner professing a readiness to comply with her in all reciprocal offices of respect and friendship and consequently inviting her amongst other Princes to the following Council to which if she should please to send her Bishops or be present in the same by her Ambassadors he doubted not of giving them such satisfaction as might set him in a fair way to obtain his ends Leaving the Pope in this good humour we shall go for England where we shall find the Prelates at the same imployment in which we left them the last year that is to say with setting forth the Consecrations of such new Bishops as served to fill up all the rest of the vacant Sees The first of which was Robert Horn Dr. in Divinity once Dean of Durham but better known by holding up the English Liturgy and such a form of Discipline as the times would bear against the schismaticks of Franckfort preferred unto the See of Winchester and consecrated Bishop in due form of Law on the 16th of February Of which we shall speak more hereafter on another occasion On which day also Mr. Edmond Scambler Batchelor of Divinity and one of the Prebendaries of the new Collegiat Church of St. Peter in Westminster was consecrated Bishop of the Church of Peterborough During the vacancy whereof and in the time of his incumbency Sir William Caecil principal Secretary of Estate possess'd himself of the best Mannors in the Soake which belonged unto it and for his readiness to confirm the same Mannors to him preferred him to the See of Norwich Anno 1584. Next followes the translation of Dr. Thomas Young Bishop of St. Davids to the See of York which was done upon the 25th of February in an unlucky hour to that City as it also proved For scarce was he setled in that See when he pulled down the goodly Hall and the greatest part of the Episcopal Palace in the City of York which had been built with so much care and cost by Thomas the elder one of his predecessors there in the year of our Lord 1090. Whether it were for covetousness to make money of the materials of it or out of fordidness to avoid the charge of Hospitality in that populous City let them guess that will Succeeded in the See of St. David's by Davis
might have done so also if they had not either been well watched or trusted upon their Parol to be forth-comming as the phrase is upon all occasions And though I find the name of Pates subscribed to some of the former Sessions yet it is not to be found to this the man being of a moderate and gentle spirit and possibly not willing to engage himself in any Counsels which might prove detrimental to his native country And as for Goldnel though his zeal to Popery was strong enough to carry him beyond the Seas yet it did not carry him so far as Trent there being so many retireing places nearer home in which he might repose himself with more contentment But leaving the Fathers in Trent to expect the comming of the holy Ghost in a cloak-bag from Rome according to the common scorn which was put upon them we must prepare our selves for England first taking in our way the affairs of France which now began to take up a great part of the thoughts of the Queen and her Council The Reformed Religion had made some entrance in that kingdome during the Reign of king â—rancis the first exceedingly dispersed and propagated in most parts thereof notwithstanding the frequent Martyrdoms of particular persons the great and terrible Massacres of whole Townships Commonalties and Churches even by hundreds and thousands in divers places of the Realm To which encrease the fickle nature of the French the diligence of their Preachers and the near neighbourhood of Genevâ— were of great advantage all which advantages were much improved by the authority and reputation which Calvin carried in those Churches and the contentment which the people took in a form of Government wherein they were to have a share by the rules of their Discipline and thereby draw the managery of affairs unto themselves Being grown numerous in the City of Tours and not permitted to enjoy the liberty of assembling within the walls they held their meetings at a village not far off for their publick Devotions the way to which leading through the gate of St. Hugo is thought to have occasioned the name of Hugonots which others think to have been given them by reason of their frequent nightly meetings resembled by the French to the walking of a Night-spirit which they called St. Hugh but from what ground soever it came it grew in short time to be generally given as a by-name to those which professed the Reformed Religion whether in France or else-where after Calvin's platform Their numbers not diminished by so many butcheries gave them the reputation of a party both stout and active which rendred them the subject of some jealousie to the Roman Catholicks and specially to those of the House of Guise who laboured nothing more than their extirpation But this severity sorted to no other effect than to confirm them in their Doctrines and attract many others to them who disdained to see poor people drawn every day to the Stake to be burned guilty of nothing but of zeal to worship God and to save their own souls To whom were joyned many others who thinking the Guisiards to be the cause of all the disorders in the Kingdom judged it an Heroick Act to deliver it from oppression by taking the publick Administration out of their hands But nothing more encreased their party than the accession of almâ—st all the Princes of the Blood of the House of Burbon the Chiefs whereof were the Duke of Vendosm who called himself King of Navarr in right of his Wife the Princes of Conde the Duke of Montpensier who finding themselves neglected by the Queen-Mother and oppressed by the Guisiards retired in no small discontments from the Court and being otherwise unable to make good their quarrels offered themselves as Leaders of the Hâ—gonot-faction who very cheerfully submitted to their rule and conduct The better to confirm their minds they caused the principal Lawyers of Germany and France and the most famous Protestant Divines to publish in writing that without violating the Majesty of the King and the dignity of the lawful Magistrate they might oppose with Arms the violent Domination of the House of Guise who did not onely labour to suppress the true Religion and obstruct the free passage of Justice but seemed to keep the King in prison Having thus formed their Party in the minority of King â—rancis the second their first design was that a great multitude should appear before the King without Arms to demand that the severity of the judgments might be mitigated and liberty of conscience granted intending that they should be followed by Gentlemen who should make supplication against the Government of the Guisiards But the purpose being made known to the Court the King was removed from Bloâ—sâ—n â—n open Town to the strong Castle of Amboise as if he could not otherwise be safe from some present Treason After which followed a strict inquiry after all those who had a hand in the design the punishment of some and the flight of others with the conclusion taken up by the Guisian faction to settle the Spanish Inquisition in the Realm of France To pacifie the present troubles an Edict is published by the King on the 18th of March 1560 in the French account for the pardoning of all who simply moved with the zeal of Religion had ingaged in the supposed conspiracy upon condition that they disarmed within 24 hours and after that another Edict by which a general pardon was indulged to all Reformatiâ—â—â— but so that all assemblies under the colour of Religion were prohibited by it and a charge laid upon the Bishops to take unto themselves the cognisance of all causes of Heresie in their several Diocesses But this so little edified with those of that party that greater tumults were occasioned by it in Provence Languedock and Poictoâ— To which places the Ministers of Geneva were called who most willingly came By whose Sermons the number of Protestants so increased in those Provinces and by their Agents in most others that in this year 1562. they were distributed into two thousand one hundred and fifty Churches as appeared upon a just computation of them But in the midst of these improvements the power and reputation of the side was shrewdly weakned by the falling off of Anthony Duke of Vendosme and King of 〈◊〉 who did not only openly forsake the party but afterwards joined himself in counsel and design against it with the Duke of Guise The foundâ—ing of so great a pillar threatned a quick ruine to the fabrick if some other butteress were not found to support the same The war was carried on from one place to another but seemed to aim most at the reduction of Normandâ— where the Hugonoâ—s had possessed themselves of some Towns and Casâ—les by which they might be able to distress the City of Paris and thereby make a great impression on the rest of the Kingdom It was thereupon advised by Lewis Prince of Coâ—de the
not to divâ—lge so great a secret for fear the Princesse Dowager on the hearing of it either before or on the day of passing Sentence should make her appearance in the Court For saith he if the noble Lady Katherine should upon the bruit of this matter either in the mouthes of the Inhabitants of the Country or by her Friends or Counsell hearing of this bruite be moved stirred counselled or perswaded to appear before me in the time or afore the time of Sentence I should be thereby greatly staid and let in the Processe and the King's Grace's Councell here present shall be much uncertain what shall be then further done therein For a great bruite and voice of the people in this behalf might perchance move her to do the thing which peradventure she would not if she hear little of it And therefore I pray you to speak as little of this matter as you may and to move the King's Highnesse so to do for consideration above recited But so it hapned to their wish that the Queen persisting constant in her Resolution of standing to the Judgment of no other Court than the Court of Rome vouchsafed not to take any notice of their proceeding in the Cause And thereupon at the day and time before designed she was pronounced to be Contâ—max for defect of Appearance and by the generall consent of all the Learned men then present the Sentence of the Divorce was passed and her Marriage with the King declared void and of none effect Of all these doings as the Divorced Queen would take no notice so by her Officers and Attendants she was served as in her former capacity Which comming to the King's knowledge he sends the Duke of Suffolk and some others in the month of July with certain Instructions given in Writing to perswade her to submit to the Determinations of the King and State to lay aside the Title of Queen to content her self with that of the Princesse Dowager and to remove her from the Bishop of Lincoln's house at Bayden where she then remained to a place called Someâ—sham belonging to the Bishop and Church of Eli. To none of which when she would hearken an Oath is tendred to her Officers and the rest of her Houshold to serve her onely in the capacity of Princesse Dowager and not as formerly in the noâ—ion of a Queen of England Which at the first was generally refused amongst them upon a Resolution which had been made in the Case by Abel and Berker her two Chaplains that is to say That having already took an Oath to serve her as Queen they could not with a good conscience take any other But in the end a fear of losing their said places but more of falling into the King's displeasure so prevailed upon them that the Oath was taken by most of them not suffered from thenceforth to come into the Queen's presence who looked upon them as the betrayers of her Cause or to perform any service about her Person Some Motives to induce her to a better conformity were ordered to be laid before her none like to be more prevalent than that which might concern the Interest of her daughter Mary And therefore it was offered to her consideration That chiefly and above all things she should have regard to the Honourable and her most dear Daughter the Lady Princesse from whom in case the King's Highnesse being thus enforced exagitated and moved by the unkindnesse of the Dowager might also withdraw his Princely estimation goodnesse zeal and affection it would be to her no little regret sorrow and extream calamity But the wise Queen knew well enough that if she stood her Daughter could not do amisse whereas there could be nothing gained by such submissions but the dishonour of the one the Bastardising of the other and the exâ—luding of them both from all possibility of being restored in time to come to their first condition Finding small hopes of any justice to be done her in the Realm of England and not well able to endure so many indignities as had been daily put upon her she makes her complaint unto the Pope whom she found willing to show his teeth though he could not bite For presently hereupon a Bull is issued for accursing both the King and the Realm the Beaâ—er hereof not daring to proclaim the same in England caused it to be set up in some publick places in the Town of Dunkirk one of the Haven Towns of Flanders that so the roaring of it might be heard on this side of the Sea to which it was not safe to bring it But neither the Pope nor the Queen Dowager got any thing by this rash adventure which onely served to exasperate the King against them as also against all which adheared unto them For in the following Parliament which began on the 25 th of January and ended on the 30 th of March an Act was pass'd inhibiting the payment of First-fruits to the Bishop of Rome and for the Electing Consecrating and Confirming of the Archbishops and Bishops in the Realm of England without recourse unto the Pope cap. 20. Another Act for the Attaindure of Elizabeth Barton commonly called the holy Maid of Kâ—nt with many other her adhearents for stickling in the cause of the Princesse Dowager cap. 12. and finally of Establishing the Succession in the Crown Imperiall of this Realm cap. 22. In which last Act the Sentence of the Divorce was confirmed and ratified the Princesse Mary deâ—lared to be illegitimate the Succession of the Crown entailed on the King's Issue by Queen Anne Bollen an Oath prescribed for all the Subjects in maintenance of the said Statute of Succession and taken by the Lords and Commons at the end of that Parliament as generally by all the Subjects of the Kingdom within few months after For the refusall whereof as also for denying the King's Supremacy and some suspition of confederacy with Elizabeth Barton Doctor John Fisher Bishop of Rochester not many days before created Cardinall by Pope Paul the 3 d. was on the 22 of June beheaded publickly on the Tower-hill and his head most disgracefully fixed upon a Pole and set on the top of the Gate on London-Bridge And on the 6 th of July then next following Sir Thomas Moor who had succeeded Wolsie in the place of Lord Chancellor was beheaded for the same cause also But I find him not accused as I do the other for having any hand in the Conspiracy of Elâ—zabeth Barton The Execution of which great persons and of so many others who wish'd well unto her added so much affliction to the desolate and disconsolate Queen that not being able longer to bear the burden of so many miseries she fell into a languishing sicknesse which more and more encreasing on her and finding the near approach of death the onely remedy now left for all her sorrows she dictated this ensuing Letter which she caused to be delivered to the King by one of her
slackned by degrees his accustomed diligence in labouring be perswasions to work on one who was resolved before hand not to be perswaded So that being weary of the Court and the court of her she was permitted for a time to remain at Hunâ—sdon in the County of Hartford To which place being in the Diocesse of London Bishop Ridley had recourse unto her and at first was kindly entertained But having staid dinner at her request he made an offer of his service to preach before her on the Sunday following to which she answered That the doors of the Parish Church adjoining should be open for him that hâ— might preach there if he liâ—ted but that neither she nâ—r any of her sâ—rvants would bâ—â—her◠〈◊〉 hear him Madam said he I hope you will not refuse to hear Gods word To which she answered That she could not tell what they called Gods word that which was now called thâ—â—â—rd of God 〈◊〉 having been accounted such in the â—â—yes of her father After which falling into many different expressions against the Religion then established she â—ismissed him thus My Lord said she For your gentlenesse to come and see me I thank you but for your offer to preach before me I thank 〈◊〉 nâ—t Which said he was conducted by Sir Thâ—mas Wâ—arton one of her principall Officerâ— to the place where they dined by whom he was presented with a cup of wine which having drank and looking very sadly on it Surely said he 〈…〉 Which words he spake with such a vehemency of spirit aâ— made the hair of some of those which were present to stand an end as themselves afterwardâ— confessed Of this behaviour of the Princesse aâ— the Bishop much complained in other pâ—aâ—es so most especially in a Sermon preached at St Paul's Crosse on the sixteenth of July in which he was appointed by the Lords of the Council to set forth the title of Queen Jane to whom the sâ—ccession of the Crown had been transferred by King Edward at the solicitation and procurement of the Duke of Nâ—rthâ—mbeâ—land who served himself of nothing more than of her obstinate aversnesse from the reformed Religion then by law established The cunning contrivance of which plot and all that had been done in pursuance of it hath been laid down at large in the Appendix to the former book Suffice in this place to know that being secretly advertised of her brothers death she dispatched her letters of the ninth of July to the Lords of Council requiring them not only to acknowledge her just title to the Crown of this Realm but to cause proâ—lamation of it to be made in the usual form which though it was denied by them as the case then stood yet she was gratified therein by the Mayor of Norwich who firsâ— proclaimed her Queen on the fourth day after as afterwards was done in some other places by those who did prefer the interest of King Henry's children before that of the Dudâ—y's But hearing of the great preparations which were made against her and finding her condition in a manner desperate when she first put her self into Framâ—ngham Castle she faithfully assureu the Gentry and other inhabitants of the County of Suffolk that she would not alter the Religion which had been setled and confirmed in the Reign of her brother On which assurance there was such a confluence to her from those parts of the Kingdom that in short space she had an army of fourteen thousand fighting men to maintain her quarrel The newes whereof together with the risings of the people in other places on the same account wrought such an alteration in the Lords of the Council whom she had before solicited in vain to allow her title that on the nineteenth of July she was solemnly proclaimed Queen at Cheapside Crosse not only by their general and joint consent but by the joyful acclamations of all sorts of people But as Mariners seldome pay those vows which they make in a tempest when once they are delivered from the danger of it so Mary once established in the Royal Throne forgot the services which she received from those of Suffolk together with the promises which she made unto them in the case of Religion Insomuch that afterwards being petitioned by them in that behalf it was answered with more churlishnesse than could be rationally expected in a green Estate That members must obey their Head and not look to rule it And that she might no more be troubled with the like Petitions she caused one Dobb a Gentlemen on Windham side who had presumed to put her in remembrance of her former promise to be punished by standing in the Pillory three dayes together to be a gazing stock to all men But such is the condition of our humane nature that we are far more ready to require a favour when we stand in need of it than willing to acknowledge or requite it when our turn is served Of which we cannot easily meet with a cleerer evidence than the example of this Queen who was so far from gartifying those who had been most aiding to her in the time of her trouble that she persecuted them and all others of the same perswasions with fire and faggot as by the sequel of her story will at large appear The Life and Reign of QUEEN MARY An. Reg. Mar. 1. A. D. 1553. 1554. THe interposings in behalf of the Lady Jane being disrelished generally in most parts of the Kingdome Mâ—ry the eldest sister of King Edward the sixt is proclaimed Queen by the Lords of the Council assiâ—â—ed by the Lord Mayor of London and such of the Nobility as were then resident about that City on Wednesday the nineteenth day of July Annâ— 1553. The Proclamation published at the Crosse in Cheâ—p with all sâ—lemnities accustomed on the like occasions and entertained with joyfull acclamations by all sorts of people who feared nothing more than the pride and tyranny of the Duke of Northumberland To carry which news to the Queen at Framingham the Earl of Arundel and the Lord Paget are dispatched immediately by the rest of the Council and Letters are speedily posted by some private friends to the Duke at Cambridgâ— Who understanding how things went without expecting any order from the Lords at London dismist the remnant of his Army and presently repairing into the Market place proclaimed the Queen crying God save Queen Mary as loud as any and flinging up his cap for joy as the others did Which service he had scarce performed when Rose a Pouâ—suivant of Arms comes to him with instructions from the Lords of the Council subscribed by the Archbishop of Canterbury the Lord Chancellor Goodrick the Lord Treasurer Paulet the Duke of Suffolk the Earl of Bedford Shrewsbury and Pembrook the Lord Darsie Sir Robert Cotton Sir William Peter and Sir William Cecil the two principall Secretaries Sir John Cheeck Tutor to the last King Sir John Baker Chancellor of the tenths and first fruits
a deprivation So that for want of Canonical Ordination on the one side and under colour of uncanonical Mariages on the other we shall presently find such a general remove amongst the Bishops and Clergy as is not any where to be parallel'd in so short a time And because some affronts had been lately offered to such Priests as had been forward in setting up the Mass in their several Churches and that no small danger was incurred by Dr Bourn above mentioned for a Sermon preached at St Paul's Cross an Act was passed for the preventing of the like for the time to come Entituled An Act against offenders of Preachers and other Ministers in the Church Which two Acts were no sooner passed but they were seconded by the Queen with two Proclamations on the 5th of December By one of which it was declared That all Statutes made in the time of the late King Edward which concerned Religion were repealed by Parliament and therefore that the Mass should be said as formerly to begin on the 20th of that month And by the other it was commanded that no manner of person from thenceforth should dare to disturb the Priests in saying Mass or executing any other divine Office under the pains and penalties therein contained According unto which appointment the Mass was publickly officiated in all parts of the Kingdome and so continued during the Reign of this Queen without interruption There also past another Act wherein it was Enacted That the mariage between King Henry the 8th and Queen Katherine his first wife should be definitively cleerly and absolutely declared deemed adjudged to be and stand with God's Laws and his most Holy word and to be accepted reputed and taken of good effect and validity to all intents and purposes whatsoever that the Decree or Sentence of Divorce heretofore passed between the said King Henry the 8th and the said Queen by Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury should be deemed taken and reputed to be void and null with a repeal of all such Statutes or Acts of Parliament in which the Queen had been declared to be illegitimate The making of which Act as it did much conduce to the establishment of the Queen's estate so did it tacitly and implicitly acknowlege the supremacy to be in the Pope of Rome which could not be attained explicitly and in terms expresse as affairs then stood For since the mariage neither was nor could be reputed valid but by the dispensation of Pope Julius the 2d the declaration of the goodness and validity of it did consequently infer the Popes authority from which that dispensation issued And therefore it was well observed by the Author of the History of the Council of Trent that it seemed ridiculous in the English Nobility to oppose the restitution of the Popes supremacy when it was propounded to them by the Queen in the following Session considering that the yielding to this demand was virtually contained in their assent to the Mariage There also past another Act in which there was a clause for the invalidating of all such Commissions as had been granted in the time of the late Queen Jane and one in confirmation of the attainders of the late Duke of Northumberland Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury c. Which shews that there was somewhat in the said proceedings not so cleer in Law but that there seem'd necessity of calling in the Legislative power to confirm the same for the indempnity of those who had acted in them Together with this Parliament the Queen was pleased to summon a Convocation to the end that all matters of Religion might be first debated and concluded in a Synodical way before they were offered to the consideration of the other Assembly In the writs of which summons she retained the Title of Supream Head on earth of the Church of England c. the want whereof in those of the present Parliament occasioned a dispute amongst some of the members Whether they might lawfully proceed or not in such publick businesses as were to be propounded to them in that Session Archbishop Cranmer had been before imprisoned in the Tower of London and was detained there all the time of this Convocation so that he could not do that service to God and the Church which his place required This took for a sufficient ground to transfar the Presidentship of the Convocation upon Bonner of London privileged in respect of his See to preside in all such Provincial Synods which were either held during the vacancy of the See of Canterbury or in the necessary absence of the Metropolitan The lower house of the Clergy also was fitted with a Prolocutor of the same affections Dr Hugh Weston then newly substituted Dean of Westminster in the place of Cox being elected to that Office On Wednesday the 18th of October it was signified by the Prolocutor that it was the Queens pleasure that they of the House should debate of matters of Religion and proceed to the making of such constitutions as should be found necessary in that case But there was no equality in number between the parties and reason was of no authority where the major part had formerly resolved upon the points So partially had the elections been returned from the several Diocesses that we find none of King Edward's Clergy amongst the Clerks and such an alteration had been made in the Deans and Dignitaries that we find but six of that ranck neither to have suffrage in it that is to say James Haddon Dean of Exeter Walter Philips Dean of Rochester John Philpot Arch Deacon of Winchester John Elmer Arch Deacon of Stow in the Diocess of Lincoln Richard Cheny Arch Deacon of Hereford One more I find but without any name in the Acts and Mon who joined himself to the other five in the disputation Nor would the Prolocutor admit of more though earnestly desired by Philpot that some of the Divines which had the passing of the Book of Articles in King Edward's time might be associated with them in the defence thereof Which motion he the rather made because one of the points proposed by the Prolocutor related to a Catechism set forth in the said Kings time intituled to the said Convocation in the year 1552. Of which it was to be enquired whether or no it was the work of that Convocation But that matter being passed lightly over the main point in debate concerned the manner of Christs presence in the blessed Sacrament It was not denied by Philpot and the rest of the Protestant party that Christ was present in his Sacrament rightly ministred according to his institution but only that he was not present after the gross and carnal manner which they of the Popish party had before subscribed to Six days the disputation lasted but to little purpose for on the one side it was said by Weston and his associates that their adversaries were sufficiently confuted and all their Arguments fully answered And on the other side it was affirmed
Ricot in reference perhaps to his fatheâ—s suffering in the cause of her mother from whom descended Francis Lord Norris advanced by King James to the Honors of Viscount Tame and Earl of Berkshire by Letters Patens bearing date in January Anno 1620. After him on the 7th of April comes Sir Edward North created Baron of Charâ—eleg in the Country of Cambridge who having been Chancellor of the Court of Augmentations in the time of King Henry and raised himself a fair Estate by the fall of Abbyes was by the King made one of his Executors and nominated to be one of the great Councill of Estate in his Son's Minority Sir John Bâ—ugis brings up the rear who being descended from Sir John Chandois a right noble Banneret and from the Bottelers Lords of Sudley was made Lord Chandois of Sudley on the 8th of April whiâ—h goodly Mannor he had lately purchased of the Crown to which it was Escheated on the death of Sir Thomas Seymour Anno. 1549. the Title still enjoyed though but little else by the seventh Lord of this Name and Family most of the Lands being dismembred from the House by the unparallel'd Impudence to give it no worse name of his elder brother Some Bishops I find consecrated about this time also to make the stronger party for the Queen in the House of Peers no more Sees actually voided at that time to make Rome for others though many in a fair way to it of which more hereafter Hooper of Glocester commanded to attend the Lords of the Council on the 22 of August and committed prisoner not long after was outed of his Bishoprick immediately on the ending of the Parliament in which all Consecrations were declared to be void and null which had been made according to the Ordinall of King Edward the 6 th Into whose place succeeded James Brooks Doctor in Divinity sometimes Fellow of Corpus Christi and Master of Bâ—liol Colledge in Oxon employed not long after as a Delegat from the Pope of Rome in the proceedings against the Archbishop of Canterbury whom he condemned to the stake To Jaylor of whose death we have spoken before succeeded Doctor John White in the See of Lincoln first School-master and after Warden of the Colledge near Winchester to the Episcopall See whereof we shall find him translated Anno 1556. The Church of Rochester had been void ever since the removall of Doctor Story to the See of Chichester not suffered to return to his former Bishoprick though dispoiled of the later But it was now thought good to fill it and Maurice Griffin who for some years had been the Archdeacon is consecrated Bishop of it on the first of April One suffrage more was gained by the repealing of an Act of Parliament made in the last Session of King Edward for dissolving the Bishoprick of Durham till which time Doctor Cuthbert Tunstall though restored to his Liberty and possibly to a good part also of his Churches Partimony had neither Suffrage as a Peer in the House of Parliament not could act any thing as a Bishop in his own Jurisdiction And with these Consecrations and Creations I conclude this year An. Reg. Mar. 2º An. Dom. 1554 1555. THe next begins with the Arrivall of the Prince of Spain wafted to England with a Fleet of one hundred and sixty sail of Ships twenty of which were English purposely sent to be his Convoy in regard of the warrs not then expired betwixt the French and the Spaniards Landing at Southampton on the 19 th of July on which day of the month in the year foregoing the Queen had been solemnly proclaimed in London he went to Winchester with his whole Retinue on the 24 th where he was received by the Queen with a gallant Train of Lords and Ladies solemnly married the next day being the Festival of St. James the supposed Tutelary Saint of the Spanish Nation by the Bishop of Winchester at what time the Queen had passed the eight and thirtieth year of her age and the Prince was but newly entred on his twenty seventh As soon as the Marriage-Rites were celebrated Higueroa the Emperors Embassador presented to the King a Donation of the Kingdoms of Naples and Cicily which the Emperor his father had resigned unto him Which presently was signified and the Titles of the King and Queen Proclaimed by sound of Trumpet in this following Style PHILIP and MARY by the grace of the God King and Queen of England France Naples Jerusalem Ireland Defenders of the Faith Princes of Spain and Cicily Arch-Dukes of Austria Dukes of Millain Burgundy and Brabant Counts of Ausperge Flanders and Tirroll c. At the proclaiming of which Style which was performed in French Latine and English the King and Queen showed themselves hand in hand with two Swords born before them for the greater state or in regard of their distinct Capacity in the publick Government From VVinchester they removed to Basing and so to VVindsor where Philip on the 5 th of August was Installed Knight of the Garter into the fellowship whereof he had been chosen the year before From thence the Court removed to Richmond by land and so by water to Suffolk-place in the Burrough of Southwark and on the 12 th of the same month made a magnificent passage thorow the principal streets of the City of London with all the Pomps accustomed at a Coronation The Triumphs of which Entertainment had continued longer if the Court had not put on mourning for the death of the old Duke of Norfolk who left this life at Framingham Castle in the month of September to the great sorrow of the Queen who entirely loved him Philip thus gloriously received endeavoureth to sow his Grandure to make the English sensible of the benefits which they were to partake of by this Marriage and to engratiate himself with the Nobility and People in all generous ways To which end he caused great quantity of Bullion to be brought into England loaded in twenty Carts carrying amongst them twenty seven Chests each Chest containing a Yard and some inches in length conducted to the Tower on the second of October by certain Spaniards and English-men of his Majesties Guard And on the 29 th of January then next following ninety nine Horses and two Carts laden with Treasures of Gold and Silver brought out of Spain was conveyed through the City of the Tower of London under the conduct of Sir Thomas Grosham the Queens Merchant and others He prevailed also with the Queen for discharge of such Prisoners as stood committed in the Tower either for matter of Religion or on the account of Wyaâ—'s Rebellion or for engaging in the practice of the Duke of Northumberland And being gratified therein according unto his desire the Lord Chancellor the Bishop of Ely and certain others of the Councill were sent unto the Tower on the 18 th of January to see the same put in execution which was accordingly performed to the great joy
enjoying all those Rights and Privileges which formerly he stood possessed of in this Kingdom For the passing of which Bill into Act the King and Queen vouchsafed their presence as soon as it was fitted and prepared for them not staying till the end of the Session as at other times because the businesse might not suffer such a long delay It was upon the 24 th of November that the Cardinal came first to London and had his Lodgings in or near the Court till Lambeth house could be made ready to receive him Having reposed himself for a day or two the Lords and Commons are required to attend their Majesties at the Court where the Cardinal in a very grave and eloquent speech first gave them thanks for being restored unto his Country in recompence whereof he told them that he was come to restore them to the Country and Court of Heaven from which by their departing from the Church they had been estranged He therefore earnestly exhorts them to acknowledge their errors and cheerfully to receive that benefit which Christ was ready by his Vicar to extend unto them His Speech is said to have been long and artificial but it concluded to this purpose That he had the Keys to open them a way into the Church which they had shut against themselves by making so many Laws to the dishonour and reproach of the See Apostolick on the revoking of which Laws they should â—ind him ready to make use of his Keys in opening the doors of the Church unto them It was concluded hereupon by both Houses of Parliament that a Petition should be made in the name of the Kingdom wherein should be declared how â—orry they were that they had withdrawn their obedience from the Apostolick See and consenting to the Statutes made against it promising to do their best endeavour hereafter that the said Laws and Statutes should be repealed and beseeching the King and Queen to intercede for them with his Holiness that they may be absolved from the Crimes and Censures and be received as penitent children into the bosom of the Church These things being thus resolved upon both Houses are called again to the Court on St. Andrews day where being assembled in the presence of the King and Queen they were asked by the Lord Chancellor Gardiner whether they were pleased that Pardon should be demanded of the Legat and whether they would return to the Unity of the Church and Obedience of the Pope Supream Head thereof To which when some cryed Yea and the rest said nothing their silence was taken for consent and so the Petition was presented to their Majesties in the name of the Parliament Which being publickly read they arose with a purpose to have moved the Cardinal in it who meeting their desires declared his readinesse in giving them that satisfaction which they would have craved And having caused the Authority given him by the Pope to be publickly read he showed how acceptable the repentance of a sâ—nner was in the sight of God and that the very Angels in Heaven rejoyced at the conversion of this Kingdom Which said they all kneeled upon their knees and imploring the mercy of God received absolution for themselves and the rest of the Kingdom which Absolution was pronounced in these following words Our Lord Jesus Christ which with his most precious blood hath redeemed and wash'd uâ— from all our sins and iniquities that he might purchase unto himself a glorious Spouse without spot or wrinckle and whom the Father hath appointed Head over all his Church He by his mercy absolve you And we by Apostolick Authority given unto us by the most holy Lord Pope Julius the 3 d his Vicegerent here on earth do absolve and deliver you and every of you with the whole Realm and the Dominions thereof from all Heresie and Schism and from all and every Judgment Censures and Pains for that cause incurred And also we do restore you again unto the unity of our Mother the holy Church as in our Letters more plainly it shall appear In the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Which words of his being seconded with a loud Amen by such as were present he concluded the days work with a solemn Procession to the Chapel for rendring Prayers and Thanks to Almighty God And because this great work was wrought on St. Andrews day the Cardinal procured a Decree or Canon to be made in the Convocation of the Bishops and Clergy that from thenceforth the Feast of St. Andrew should be kept in the Church of England for a Majus Duplex as the Rituals call it and celebrated with as much solemnity as any other in the year It was thought fit also that the actions of the day should be communicated on the Sunday following being the second of December at St. Paul's Crosse in the hearing of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and the rest of the City According to which appointment the Cardinal went from Lambeth by water and landing at St. Paul's Wharf from thence proceeded to the Church with a Cross two Pillars and two Pole-axes of silver born before him Received by the Lord Chancellor with a solemn Procession they â—arried till the King came from Westminster Immediately upon whose comming the Lord Chancellor went into the Pulpit and preached upon on those words of St. Paul Rom. 13. Fratres scientes quia hora est jam nos de somno surgerâ— c. In which Sermon he declared what had been done on the Friday before in the submission which was made to the Pope by the Lords and Commons in the name of themselves and the whole Kingdom and the Absolution granted to them by the Cardinal in the name of the Pope Which done and Praiers being made for the whole Estate of the Catholick Church the company was for that time dismissed And on the Thursday after being the Feast of St. Nicholas day the Bishops and Clergy then assembled in their Convocation presented themselves before the Cardinal at Lamboth and kneeling reverently on their knees they obtained pardon for all their Perjuries Schisms and Heresies From which a formal Absolution was pronounced also that so all sorts of people might partake of the Pope's Benediction and thereby testifie their obedience and submission to him The news whereof being speedily posted over to the Pope he caused not onely many solemn Processions to be made in Rome and most parts of Italy but proclaimed a Jubile to be held on the 24th of December then next comming For the anticipating of which solemnity he alleged this reason That it became him to imitate the father of the Prodigal child and having received his lost son not onely to expresse a domestical joy but to invite all others to partake thereof During this Parliament was held a Convocation also as before was intimated Bonner continuing President of it and Henry Cole Archdeacon of Ely admitted to the office of Prolocutor They knew well how the Cards were
London to give God thanks for their conversion to the Catholick Church Wherein to set out their glorious pomp were ninety Crosses one hundred sixty Priests and Clarks each of them attired in his Cope and after them eight Bishops in their Pontificalibus followed by Bonner carrying the Popish Pix under a Canopy and attended by the Lord Mayor and Companies in their several Liveries Which solemn Procession being ended they all returned into the Church of St Paul where the King and Cardinal together with all the rest heard Mass and the next day the Parliament and Convocation were dissolved Nothing now rested but the sending of a solemn Embassery in the name of the King and Kingdom to the Court of Rome for testifying their submission to his Holiness and receiving his Apostolical benediction To which employment were designed Sir Anthony Brown who on the 2d of September had been created Viscoâ—nt Mountacute in regard of his descent from Sir John Nevil whom King Edward the 4th advanced unto the Title of Marquisse Mountacute as being the second son of Richard Nevil Earl of Sarisbury and Alâ—ce his wife daughter and heir of Thomas Mountacute the last and most renowned Earl of Sarisbury of that Name and Family With whom was joined in Commission an another Ambassador extraordinary Dr Thomas Thurlby Bishop of Ely together with Sir Edward Karâ— appointed to recide as Ordinary in the Papal Court. On the 18th day of February they began their journy but found so great an alteration when they came to Rome that Pope Juâ—â—â—us was not only dead but that Marcellus who succeeded him was deceased also so that the honour and felicity of this address from the King of England devolved on Cardinal Caraffa no great friend of Poles who took unto himself the name of Paul the 4th on the first day of whose Papacy it chanced that the three Ambassadors came first to Rome It was in the first Consistory also after his inauguration that the Ambassadors were brought before him Where prostrating themselves at the Pope's feet they in the name of the Kingdom acknowledged the faults committed relating them all in particular for so the Pope was pleas'd to have it confessing that they had been ungrateful for so many benefits received from the Church and humbly craving pardon for it The pardon was not only granted and the Ambassadors lovingly imbraced but as an overplus the Pope was pleas'd to honour their Majesties with the Title of Kings of Ireland Which Title he conferred upon them by the authority which the Popes pretend to have from God in erecting and subverting Kingdoms He knew right well that Ireland had been erected into a Kingdom by King Henry the 8th and that both Edward the 6th and the Queen now reigning had alwayes used the Title of Kings of Ireland in the style Imperial But he conceived himself not bound to take notice of it or to relinquish any privilege which had been exercised in that kind by his predecessors And thereupon he found out this temperament that is to say to dissemble his knowlege of that which had been done by Henry and of himself to erect the Island into a Kingdom that so the world might be induced to believe that the Queen rather used that Title as indulged by the Pope than as assumed by her Father And this he did according to a secret mystery of Government in the Church of Rome in giving that which they could not take from the possessor as on the other side some Kings to avoid contentions have received of them their own proper goods as gifts and others have dissembled the knowledge of the Gift and the pretence of the Giver These things being thus dispatched in publick the Pope had many private discourses with the Ambassadors in which he found fault that the Church goods were not wholly restored saying that by no means it was to be tolerated and that it was necessary to render all even to a farthing He added that the things which belong to God could never be applied to humane uses and that he who withholdeth the least part of them was in continual state of damnation that if he had power to grant them he would do it most readily for the fartherly affection which he bare unto them and for the experience which he had of their filial obedience but that his authority was not so large as to prophane things dedicated to Almighty God and therefore he would have the people of England be assured that these Church lands would be an Anathema or an accursed thing which by the just revenge of God would keep the Kingdom in perpetual infelicity And of this he charged the Ambassadors to write immediately not speaking it once or twice only but repeating it upon all occasions He also told them that the Peter-Pence ought to be paid assoon as might be and that according to the custome he would send a Collector for that purpose letting them know that himself had exercised that charge in England for three years together and that he was much edified by seeing the forwardness of the people in that contribution The discourse upon which particular he closed with this that they could not hope that St Peter would open to them the gates of Heaven as long as they usurped his goods on earth To all which talk the Ambassadors could not chuse but give a hearing and knew that they should get no more at their coming home At their departure out of England they left the Queen in an opinion of her being with child and doubted not but that they should congratulate her safe delivery when they came to render an account of their imployment but it proved the contrary The Queen about three months after her mariage began to find strong hopes not only that she had conceived but also that she was far gone with child Notice whereof was sent by Letters to Bonner from the Lords of the Council by which he was required to cause Te Deum to be sung in all the Churches of his Diocess with continual prayers to be made for the Queen 's safe delivery And for example to the rest these commands were executed first on the 28th of November Dr Chadsey one of the Prebends of Paul's preaching at the Cross in the presence of the Bishop of London and nine other Bishops the Lord Mayor and Aldermen attending in their scarlet Robes and many of the principal Citizens in their several Liveries Which opinion gathering greater strength with the Queen and belief with the people it was Enacted by the Lords and Commons then sitting in Parliament That if it should happen to the Queen otherwise than well in the time of her travel that then the King should have the politick Government Order and Administration of this Realm during the tender years of her Majestie 's issue together with the Rule Order Education and Government of the said issue Which charge as he was pleased to undergo at their humble
he was not able to resist and thereby gained so much displeasure from the Cardinal Legate that before the end of the next year Anno 1557. he was outed of his Deanry of Windsor and all his other Ecclesiastical promotions upon an information of his being taken in the act of adultery which otherwise perhaps might have been pardoned or connived at in him as in many others But willing or unwilling he had first surrender'd the Church of Westminster which the Queen stocked with a new Convent of Benâ—dictines consisting of an Abbot and fourteen Monks which with their officers were as many as the Lands then left unto it could well maintain And for the first Abbot she made choice of Dr John Fecknam a learned grave and moderate man whom she had formerly made Dean of St Paul's in the place of Dr William May and now made choice of Dr Henry Cole Arch-Deacon of Ely and Prolocutor of the Convocation Anno 1555. to succeed him in it It was upon the 21 of November that the new Abbot and his Monks entred on the possession of their ancient Convent which they held not fully out three years when it was once again dissolved by Act of Parliament of which more hereafter Which fate befel the rest of her foundations also two of which cost her little more than this at Westminster A Convent of Observants being a reformed Order of Franciscan Friers had been founded by King Henry the 7th neer the Mannor of Greenwich and was the first which felt the fury of King Henry the 8th by reason of some open opposition made by some of the Friers in favour of Queen Katherine the mother of the Queen now reigning Which moved her in a pious gratitude to re-edifie that ruined house and to restore as many as could be found of that Order to their old habitations making up their Corporation with some new Observants to a competent number She gathered together also a new Convent of Dominicans or black Friers for whom she provided an house in Smithfield in the City of London â—itting the same with all conveniences both for divine Offices and other necessary uses And having done this she was at no more charges with either of them for both the Observants and Dominicans being begging Fryers might be resembled not unfitly to a swarm of Bees which being provided of an hive are left to make their combs and raise themselves a livelyhood by their natural industry But so she went not off in her other foundations which were to be provided of some proportionable endowment out of the revenues of the Crown towards their support Aâ— Sion nere Brentford in the Country of Middlesex there had been anciently a house of religious women Nuns of the Order of St Bridget dissolv'd as were all teh rest by King Henry the 8th Most of the old ones dead and the younger maried Yet out of such of the old Nuns as remained alive and the addition of some others who were willing to embrace that course of life a competent number was made up for a new Plantation but seated as before at Sion which the Queen repaired and laid unto it a sufficient estate in Lands for their future maintenance Which house being afterwards dissolved also by Queen Elizabeth came first to the possession of Sir Thomas Perrot who gave it to his wife the Lady Dorothy one of the daughters of Walter Divereux Earl of Essex by whom being after married to Henry Lord Percy Earl of Northumberland it was left for a retiring house to that Noble Family who do still enjoy it At Sheen on the other side of the water there had been anciently another religious house not far from a mansion of the Kings to which they much resorted till the building of Richmond This house she stock'd with a new Convent of Carthusians corruptly called the Charter-hoâ—se-Moncks which she endowed with a revenue great enough to maintain that Order which profest more abstemiousness in diet and sparingness of expence in all other things than any others which embraced a Monastical life And the next year having closed up the West end of the Quire or Chancel of the Church of St Johns neer Smithfield which was all the Protector Sommerset had left standing of it she restored the same to the Hospitalry of Knights of St John to whom it formerly belonged assigning a liberal endowment to it for their more honourable subsistence Over whom she placed Sir Thomas Treshaâ—â— for the first Lord Prior a Gentleman of an ancient Family and one that had deserv'd exceeding well of her in defence of her claim against Queen Jane who on the 30th of November 1557. received the Order of the Crosse at Westminster and took possession of his place which having scarce warmed he was taken from it by the stroke of death and left it by the Queen to be disposed of to Sir Râ—chard Shellie the last great Master of that Order in the Realm of England But this expiring with the rest within two years after there remained nothing of all Queen Mary's foundations but her new Hoâ—pital in the Savoy An Hospital had formerly been founded in thaâ— House by her Grandfather King Henry the seventh for the relief of such pilgrims as either went on their Devotions to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket of Canterbury or any other eminent Shrine or Saint in those parts of the Kingdom On a suggestion made to King Edward the sixth that it served onely for a recepracle of vagrant persons it was surrendred to him in the last year of his Reign by the Master and Brethren of the same out of the Lands whereof he assigned the yearly Rent of seven hundred Marks for the maintenance of his new working house of Bridewel which he had given for ever to the Lord Mayor and City of London as hath been signified before in the life of that King together with all the beds bedding and other furniture which were found in this Hospital And though this Grant bare date on the 26 of June in the last year of his Reign Anno 1553. yet the Lord Mayor and Aldermen entred not on the possession of it till the month of February now last past Anno 1555. But having took possession of it and so much of the Lands of this Hospital being setled on it the Hospital in the Savoy could not be restored to its first condition but by a new Endowment from such other Lands belonging to Religious Houses which were remaining in the Crown But the Queen was so resolved upon it that she might add some works of Charity unto those of Piety or else in honour of her Grandfather whose foundation she restored at Greenwich also the Hospital was again refounded on the third of November and a convenient yearly Rent allotted to the Master and Brethren for the entertainment of the Poor according to the tenour and effect of the first Institution Which Prince-like Act so wrought upon the Maids of Honor and other Ladies
before the end of this year but not consecrated till the 15th of August in the beginning of the next Some alterations hapned also amongst the Peers of the Realm in the creation of one and the destruction of another A Rebellion had been raised in the Norâ—h upon the first suppression of Religious Houses Anno 1536. in which Sir â— homas Percy second soâ— to Henry the fifth Earl of Northumberland of that name and family was thought to be a principal stickler and for the same was publickly arraigned condemned and executed By Eleanar his wife one of the daughters and heirs of Sir Gâ—iscard Harâ—â—oâ—tle he was the father of Thoâ—as and Henry who hitherto had suffered under his Attaindure But now it pleased Queen Mary to reflect on their Fathers sufferings and the cause thereof which moved her not onely to restore them to their blood and honors but also to so much of the Lands of the Percies as were remaining in the Crown In pursuance whereof she advanced Thomas the elder brother on the last of April to the Style Title and Degree of Earl of Noâ—thumberland the remainder to his brother Henry in case the said Thomas should depart this life without Issue male By vertue of which Entail the said Henry afterwards succeeded him in his Lands and Honors notwithstanding that he was attainted condemned and executed for high Treason in the time of Queen Elizabeth Anno 1572. Not many weeks before the restitution of which noble Family that of the Lord Sturton was in no small danger of a final destruction a Family first advanced to the state of a Baron in the person of Sir John Sturton created Lord Sturton in the 26th of King Henry the 6th and now upon the point of expiring in the person of Charls Lord Sturton condemned and executed with four of his servants on the 6th of March for the murder of one Argal and his son with whom he had been long at variance It was his first hope that the murther might not be discovered and for that cause had buried the dead bodies fifteen foot under ground his second that by reason of his zeal to the Popish Religion it might be no hard matter to procure a pardon But the Murder was too foul to be capable of any such favour so that he was not onely adjudged to die but condemned to be hanged It is reported of Marcus Antonius that having vanquished Artanasdes King of Armenia he led him bound in chains to Rome but for his greater honor and to distinguish him from the rest of the prisoners in chains of gold And such an honour was vouchsafed to this noble Murderer in not being hanged as his servants and accomplices were in a halter of hemp but in one of silk And with this fact the Family might have expired if the Queen having satisfied Justice by his execution had not consulted with her mercy for the restoring of his next Heir both in blood and honor An. Reg. Mar. 5º An. Dom. 1557 1558. WE must begin this year with the success of those forces which were sent under the command of the Earl of Pembrock to the aid of Philip who having made up an Army of 35 thousand Foot and 12 thousand Horse besides the Forces out of England sate down before St. Quintin the chief Town of Piccardy called by the Romans Augusta Veromandnorum and took this new name from St. Quintin the supposed tutelaty Saint and Patron of it a Town of principal importance to his future aims as being one of the Keys of France on that side of the Kingdom and opening a fair way even to Paris it self For the raising of which Siege the French King sends a puissant Army under the command of the Duke of Montmorancy then Lord High Constable of France accompanied with the Flower of the French Nobility On the 10th day of August the Battels joyâ— in which the French were vanquished and their Army routed the Constable himself the Prince of Mantua the Dukes of Montpensier and Longâ—aville with fix others of the prime Nobility and many others of less note being taken prisoners The Duke of 〈◊〉 the Viscount Turin four persons of honorable ranck most of the Foor Captains and of the common Soldiers to the number of 2500 slain upon the place The news whereof struck such a terrour in King Henry the 2d that he was upon the point of for saking Paru and retiring into Langâ—edock or some other remote part of his Dominions In the suddenness of which surprise he dispatcht his Curriers for recalling the Duke of Guise out of Iâ—aly whom he had sent thither at the Popes inâ—â—igation with a right puissant Army for the Conquest of Naples But Philip knowing better how to enjoy than to use his victory continued his Siege before St. Quintin which he stormed on the 18th of that month the Lord Henry Dudley one of the younger sons of the Duke of Northuâ—bâ—r land who lost his life in the Assault together with Sir Edward Windsor being the first that scaled the walls and advanced their victorious Colours on the top thereof After which gallant piece of service the English finding some neglect at the hands of Philip humbly desire to be dismist into their Country which for fear of some fuâ—â—her inconvenience was indulged unto them By which dismission of the English as Thuanâ—s and others have observed King Philip was not able with all his Spaniards to perform any action of importance in the rest of the War But the English shall pay dearly for this Victory which the Spaniard bought with no greater loss than the lives of 50 of his men The English at that time were possessed of the Town of Calais with many other pieces and â—orts about as Guisuesse Fanim Ardres c. together with the whole Territory called the County Oye the Town by Caesar called Portus Iccius situate on the mouth or entrance of the English Chanel opposite to Dover one of the five principal Havens in those parts of England from which distant not above twenty five miles a Town much aimed at for that reason by King Edward this 3d. who after a Siege of somewhat more than eleven months became Master of it Anno 1347. by whom first made a Colonie of the English Nation and after one of the Staple Towns for the sale of Wool Kept with great care by his Successors who as long as they had it in their possession were said to caâ—ry the Keys of France at their girdle esteemed by Philip de Cominâ—â— for the goodliest Captainship in the world and therefore trusted unto none but persons of most eminent ranck both for courage and honour A Town which for more than 200 years had been such an eye-sore to the French and such a thorn in their sides that Monsieur de Cordes a Nobleman who lived in the Reign of King Lewis the 11th was wont to say that he could be content to lie seven years in hell
symitry which showed it selfe in all her features and what she carried on that side by that advantage was over-ballanced on the other by a pleasing sprightfulnesse which gained as much upon the hearts of all beholders It was conceived by those Great Critticks in the schooles of Beauty that love which seemed to threaten in the eyes of Queen Jane did only seem to sport it selfe in the eyes of Queen Ann that there was more Majesty in the Gaâ—b of Queen Jane Seimour and more lovelinesse in that of Queen Ann Bollen yet so that the Majesty of the one did excell in Lovelyness and that the Lovelinesse of the other did exceed In majesty Sir John Russell afterwards Earle of Bedford who had beheld both Queens in their greatest Glories did use to say that the richer Queen Jane was in clothes the fairer she appeared but that the other the richer she was apparrelled the worse she looked which showes that Queen Ann only trusted to the Beauties of Nature and that Queen Jane did sometimes help her selfe by externall Ornaments In a word she had in her all the Graces of Queen Ann but Governed if my conjecture doth not faile me with an evener and more constant temper or if you will she may be said to be equally made up of the two last Queens as having in her all the Attractions of Queen Ann but Regulated by the reservednesse of Queen Katharine also It is not to be thought that so many rare perâ—ections should be long concealed from the eye of the King or that love should not worke in him it's accustomed effects of desire and hope In the prosecution whereof he lay so open to discovery that the Queen couâ—d not chuse but take notice of it and intimated her suspitioâ—s to him as appeares by a letter of hers in the Scrinia Sacra Iâ— which she signifies unto him that by hastning her intended death he would be left at liberty both before God and man to follow his affection already setled on the Party for whose sake she was reduced unto that condition and whose name she could some while since have pointed to his Grace not being ignorant of her suspicions And it appeared by the event that she was not much mistaken in the Mark she aimed at For scarce had her lementable death which happened on the nineteenth of May prepared the way for the Legitimating of this new affection but on the morrow after the King was secretly married to Mistress Seimour and openly showed her as his Queen in the Whitsontide following A Marriage which made some alteration in the face of the Court in the advancing of her kindred and discountenancing the Dependants of the former Queen but otherwise produced no change in Affaires of State The King proceeded as before in suppressing Monasteries extinguishing the Popes Authority and â—ltering divers things in the face of the Câ—uâ—ch which tended to that Reformation which after followed For on the eighth of June began the Parliament in which here past an Act for tâ—e finall extinguishing of the Power of the Popes of Rome Cap. 10. And the next day a Convocation of the Bishops and Clergy managed by Sir Thomas Cromwell advanced about that time unto the Title of Lord Cromwell of Wimbledon and made his Majesties Viccar Generall of all Ecclesiast â—all Matâ—ers in the Realme of England By whose Authority a book was published after Mature debate and Deliberation under the name of Articles Devised by the Kings Highness in which mentioned â—ut three Sacraments that is to â—ay Baptisme Penâ—ance and the Lords Supper Besides which book there were some Acts agreed upon in the Convocation for diminishing the superflâ—ous number of Holy dayes especially of such as happened in the time of Harvest Sâ—gnified afterwards to the people in certain Injunctions published in the Kings name by the new Viccar Generall as the first fruits of his Authority In which it was ordained amongst other things that the Curates in every Parish Church should teach the People to say the Lords Prayer the Creed the Ave-Mary and the Ten Commandments in the English Tongue But that which seemed to make most for the Advantage of the new Queen and her Posterity if it please God to give her any was the unexpected death of the Duke of Richmond the Kings naturall Son begotten on the body of the Lady Talboiâ— So dearly cherished by his Father having then no lawful Issuâ—-male that in the sixth yeare of his Age An. 1525. he created him Earl of Nottingham and not long after Duke of Richmond and Sommerset preferred him to the Honourable office of Earle Marshall elected him into the Order of the Garter made him Lord Admirall of the Royall Navy in an expedition against France and finally Affianced him to Mary the daughter of Thomas Howard Duke of Norâ—olk the most â—owerfull Subject in the Kingdom Now were these all the favours intended to him The Crown it selfe being designed him by the King in default of Lawfull Issue to be procreated and begotten of his Royall Body For in the Act of the Succession which past in the Parliament of this year the Crown being first setled upon the Issue of this Queen with the remainder to the Kings issue lawfully begotten on any following wife whatsoever there past this clause in favour of the Duke of Richmond as it was then generally conceived that is to say That for lack of lawfull heires of the Kings body to be procreated or begotten as is afore limitted by this Act it should and might be lawfull for him to confer the same on any such Person or Persons in Possession and Remainder as should please his Highnesse and according to such Estate and after such manner â—orme fashion order and condition as should be expressed declared named and lâ—mitted in his said Letters Patents or by his last Will the Crown to be enjoyed by such person or persons so to be nominated and appointed in as large and ample manner as if such Person or Persons had been his Highnesse Lawfull Heires to the Imperiall Crown of this Realm And though it might please God as it after did to give the King some Lawfull Issue by this Queen yet took he so much care for this naturall son as to enable himselfe by another Clause in the said Act to advance any person or persons of his most Royall Blood by Letters Patents under the Great Seale to any Title Stile or Name of any Estate Dignity or Honour whatsoever it be and to give to them or any of them any Castles Honours Mannours Lands Tenements Liberties Franchiefes or other Hereditaments in â—ee simple or Fee â—tail or for terme of their lives or the life of any of them But all these expectations and Provisions were to no effect the Duke departing this life at the age of 17 yeares or thereabouts within few dayes after the ending of this Session that is to say on the 22th day of July Anno 1536. to the
Appellation had been so entituled Which appeares more plainly by a particular of the Robes and Ornaments which were preparing for the day of this Solemnity as they are entred on Record in the book called The Catalogue of Honour published by Thomas Mills of Canterbury where it appeares also that they were prepared only but never used by reason of the Kings death which prevented the Sollemnities of it The ground of this Error I conceive first to be taken from John Stow who finding a creation of some Noble men and the making of many Knights to relate to the 18 day of October supposed it to have been done with reference to the Creation of a Prince of Wales whereas if I might take the liberty of putting in my own conjecture I should conceive rather that it was done with Reference to the Princes Christning as in like manner we find a creation of three Earles and five to inferiour Titles at the Christning of the Princesse Mary born to King James after his coming into England and Christened upon Sunday the fifth of May. 1604. And I conceive withall that Sir Edward Seimour Vicount Beauchamp the Queenes elder brother was then created Earle of Hartford to make him more capable of being one of the Godfathers or a Deputy-Godfather at the least to the Royall Infant the Court not being then in a condition by reason of the mournfull accident of the late Queenes death to show it selfe in any extraordinary splendour as the occasion had required at another time Among which persons so advanced to the Dignity and degree of Knighthood I find Mr. Thomas Seimour the Queenes youngest brother to be one of the number of whom we shall have frequent occasion to speak more fully and particularly in the course of this History No other alteration made in the face of the Court but that Sir William Pawlet was made Treasurer and Sir John Russell Comptroller of his Majesties Houshold on the said 18th day of October which I conceive to be the day of the Princes Christning both of them being principall Actors in the Afâ—aires and troubles of the following times But in the face of the Church there appeared some lines which looked directly towards a Reformation For besides the surrendring of divers Monasteries and the executing of some Abbots and other Religious Persons for their stiffenesse if I may not call it a perversenesse in opposing the Kings desires there are two things of speciall note which concurred this year as the Prognosticks or â—ore-runners of those great events which after followed in his Reign For it appeares by a Memoriall of the Famous Library of Sir Robert Cotton that Grafton now made known to Cromwell the finishing of the English Bible of which he had printed 1500. at his own proper charges amounting in the totall to 500. p. desiring stoppage of a surreptitions Edition in a lesse Letter which else would tend to his undoing the suit endeared by Cranmer Arch-Bishop of Canterbury at whose request Cromwell presents one of the Bibles to the King and procures the same to be allowed by his Authority to be read publiquely without comptrole in all his Dominions and for so doing he receives a letter of thanks from the said Arch-Bishop dated August the 13th of this present year Nor were the Bishops and Clergy wanting to advance the work by publishing a certain book in the English Tongue which they entituled The Institution of a Christian Man in which the Doctrine of the Sacraments the Creed the Lords Prayer and the Commandments were opened and expounded more perspicuously and lesse abhorrent from the truth then in former times By which clear light of Holy Scripture and the principall duties of Religion so laid opâ—n to them the people were the better able to discerne the errors and corruptionâ— of the Church of Rome From which by the piety of this Prince they were fully Freed And for a preamble thereunto the Rood of Boxley commonly called the Rood of Grace so Artificially contrived by reason of some secret wires in the body or concavities of it that it could move the eyes the lips c. to the great wonder and astonishment of the common people was openly discovered for a lewd imposture and broke in pieces at St. Pauls Cross on Sunday the 24. of February the Rood of Bermondsey Abby in South-work following the same fortune also within six dayes The next year brings an end to almost all the Monasteries and Religious houses in the Realme of England surrendered into the Kings hands by publâ—que instruments under the seales of all the severall and respective Convents and those surrenderies ratified and confirmed by Act of Parliament And this occasionally conduced to the future peace and quiet of this young Prince by removing out of the way some Great Pretenders who otherwise might have created to him no small disturbance For so it happened that Henry Earle of Devâ—nshire and Mary wife of Exceter descended from a daughter of King Edward the fâ—urth and Henry Pole Lord Mountacute descended from a daughter of George Duke of Clarence the second brother of that Edward under colour of preventing or revenging the Dissolution of so many famous Abbyes and religious houses associated themselves with Sir Edward Nâ—vill and Sir Nicholas Carew in a dangerous practise against the person of the King and the Peace of the Kingdom By whose endictment it appeares that it was their purpose and designe to destroy the King and advance Reginald Pole one of the younger brothers of the said Lord Mountacute of whom we shall hear more in the course of this History to the Regalâ— Throne Which how it could consist with the Pretensions of the Marquisse of Exceter or the Ambition of the Lord Mountacute the elder brother of this Reginald it is hard to say But having the Chronicle of John Speed to justifie me in the truth hereof in this particular I shall not take upon me to dispute the point The dangerous practise of which Persons did not so much retard the worke of Reformation as their execution did advance it to this year also appertaineth the suppressing of Pilgrimages the defacing of the costly and magnâ—ficent shrines of our Lady of Walsingham Ipswich Worcester c and more particularly of Thomas Becket once Arch-Bishop of Canterbury This last so rich in Jewells of most inestimable value that two great chests were filled with the spoyles thereoâ— so heavy and capacious as is affirmed by Bishop â—oodwin that each of them required no fewer then eight men to carry them out of the Church nothing inferiour unto Gold being charged within them More modestly in this then Sanders that malitious Sycophant who will have no lesse then twenty six waine load of silver Gold and precious stones to be seised into the Kings hands by the spoyle of that Monument Which proceedings so exasperated the Pope then being that without more delay by his Bull of January 1. he deprived the King
of his Dominions and caused the sentence of his Deprivation to be posted up at the Townes of Bruges Taurney and Dunkiâ—ke in Flanders at Bolloigne and Diepe in France and St. Andrewes in Scotland effâ—cting nothing by the unadviâ—edness of that desperate Counsell but that the King became more fixed in his Resolutions and more averse from all the thoughts of Reconciliation with the See of Rome The surrenderies of the former year cofirmed by Act of Parliament in the beginning of this drew after it the finall dissolution of all the rest none daring to oppose that violent Torrent which seemed to carry all before it but the Abbots of Colchester Reading and Glastenbury quarrelled for which they were severally condemned and executed under colour of denying the Kings Supremacy and their rich Abbeys seized upon as confiscations to the use of the King which brought him into such a suspition of separating from the Communion of the Church of Rome that for the better vindicating of his integrity as to the particulars he passed in the same Parliament the terrible Statute of the six Articles which drew so much good blood from his Protestant Subjects And being further doubtfull in himselfe what course to steere he marries at the same time with the Lady Ann sister unto the Duke of Cleve whom not long after he divorseth Advanceth his Great Minister Cromwell by whom he had made so much havock of Religious houâ—es in all parts of the Realm to the Earldome of Essex and sends him headlesse to his Grave within three moneths after takes to his bed the Lady Katharine Howard a Neece of Thomas Duke of Norfolk and in short time found cause enough to cut off her head not being either the richer in children by so many wives nor much improved in his Revenue by such horrible Rapines In the middest of which confusions he sets the wheele of Reformation once more going by moderating the extreme severity of the said Statute touching the six Articles abolishing the Superstitious usages accustomedly observed on St. Nicholas day and causing the English Bible of the Larger vollumne to be set up in all and every Parish Church within the Kingdome for such as were Religiously minded to Resort unto it The Prince had now but newly finished the first yeare of his age when a fit wife was thought of for him upon this occasion The Pope incensed against King Henry had not long since sententially deprived him of his Kingdom as before was said And having so done he made an offer of it to King James the fifth then King of the Scots the only Son of Margaret his eldest sister wife of James the fourth To whom he sent a Breve to this effect viz. That he would assist him against King Henry whom in his Consistory he had pronounced to be an Heretick a Scismatick a manifest Adulterer a publique Murtherer a committer of Sacriledge a Rebell and convict of Lesae Majestatis for that he had risen against his Lord and therefore that he had justly deprived him of his Kingdom and would dispose the same to him and other Princes so as they would assist him in the recovery of it This could not be so closely carried but that the King had notice of it who from thenceforth began to have a watchfull eye upon the Actions of his Nephew sometimes alluring him unto his party by offering him great hopes and favours and practising at other times to weaken and distract him by animating and maintaining his owne Subjects against him At last to set all right between them an enterview was appointed to be held at York proposed by Henry and condescended to by James But when the day appointed came the Scots King failed being deterred from making his appeareance there by some Popish Prelates who put into his head a fear of being detained a Prisoner as James the first had been by King Henry the fourth Upon this breach the King makes ready for a Warr sets out a manifest of the Reasons which induced him to it amongst which he insists especially on the neglect of performing that Homage which anciently had been done and still of Right ought to be done to the Kings of England In prosecuting of which Warr the Duke of Norfolk entred Scotland with an Army October 21. Anno 1542. waâ—ts and spoyles all the Country followed not long after by an Army of Scots consisting of 15000. men which in like manner entred England but were discomfited by the valour and good fortune of Sir Thomas Wharton and Sir William Mâ—sgrave with the help of some few Borderers only the Scots upon some discontent making little resistance In which fight besides many of the Scottish Nobility were taken eight hundred Prisoners of inferiour note twenty foure peeces of Ordinance some cart loadâ— of Armes and other booty On the 19 of December the Scottish Lords and other of the Principall Prisoners to the number of 20. or thereabouts were brought into London followed on the third day after with the newes of the death of King James and the birth of the young Queen his daughter This put King Henry on some thoughts of uniting the two Crowns in a firme and everlasting League by the Marriage of this infant Queen with his Son Prince Edward In pursuance whereof he sent for the inprisoned Lords feasted them royally at White Hall and dealt so effectually with them by himselfe and his Ministers that they all severally and joyntly engaged themselves to promote this Match Dismist into their own Country upon these promises and the leaving of Hostages they followed the Negotation with such care and diligence that on the 29th of June in the yeare ensuing notwithstanding the great opposition made against them by the Queen Dowager Cardâ—nall Beton and divers others who adhered to the Faction of France they brought the businesse at the last to this Conclusion viz. 1. That the Lords of Scotland shall have the Education of the Princess for a time yet so as it might be Lawfull for our King to send thitâ—er a Noble man and his wife with a Family under twenty Persons to waâ—te on her 2. That at ten yeares of Age she should be brought into England the contract being first finished by a Proxie in Scotland 3. That within two moneths after the date heâ—eof six Noble Scâ—ts should be given as Hostages for the performance of the Conditions on their Part And that if any of them dyed their number should be supâ—lyed 4. And furthermore it was agreed upon that the Realme of Scotland by that name should preserve it's Lawes and Rights and that Peace should be made for as long time as was desired the French being excluded But though these Capitulations thus agreed on were sent into â—ngland signed and â—ealed in the August following yet the Cardinall and his Party grew so strong that the whâ—le Treaty câ—me to nothing the Noble Men who had been Prâ—soners falsifying their Faith
22th day of March next following Upon this ground were buâ—lt the Statutes prohibiting all Appeales to Rome and for determining all Ecclesiasticall suites and controversies within the Kingdom 24. Hen. 8. cap. 1â— That for the manner of declaring and consecrating of Arch-Bishops and Bishops 25. Hen. 8. Cap. 20. and the prohibiting the payment of all impositions to the Court of Rome and for obtaining all such dispensations from the see of Canterbury which formerly were procured from the Popes of Rome 25. Hen. 8. Cap. 21. and finally that for declaring the King to be the Supreme Head of the Church of England and to have all Honours and Preheminences and amongst others the first-fruits and tenths of all Ecclesiasticall promotions within the Realm which were annexed unto that Title In the forme of consecrating Arch-Bishops and Bishops and the rule by which they excercised their Jurisdiction there was no change made but what the transposition of the Supreme Power from the Pope to the King must of necessity infer For whereas the Bishops and Clergy in the Convocation An. 1532. had bound themselves neither to make nor execute any Canons or Constitutions Ecclesiasticall but as they were thereto enabled by the Kings Authority it was by them desired assented to by him and confirmed in Parliament that all such Canons and Constitutions Synodall and Provinciall as were before in use and neither Repugnant to the Word of God the kings Prerogative Royall or the known Lawes of the Land should remaine in force till a review thereof were made by thirty two Persons of the Kings appointment Which review not having been made from that time to this all the said old Canons and Constitutions so restrained and qualified do still remaine in force as before they did For this Consult the Act of Parliament 25. Hen. 8. Cap. 1. And this and all the rest being setled then followed finally the Act for extinguishing the Power of the Pope of Rome 28. Hen. 8 Cap. 10. which before we mentioned In order to a Reformation in points of Doctrine he first directed his Bishops and Clergy in their Convocation Aâ—no 1537. to compile a Book containing The Exposition of the Creed the Lords Prayer the Avemary and the Ten Commandements together with an Explication of the use and nature of the seven Sacraments More cleerely in it self and more agreeable to the Truth of Holy Scripture then in former times which book being called The Institution of a Christian Maâ— was by them presented to the King who liked thereof so well that he sent it by Doctor Barlow Bishop of St. Davids to King James the fifth hoping thereby to induce him to make the like Reformation in the Realm of Scotland as was made in England though therein he was deceived of his expectation But this Book having lien dormant for a certain time that is to say as long as the six Articles were in force was afterwards corrected and explained by the Kings own hand and being by him so corrected was sent to be reviewed by Archâ—Bishop Cranmer by him referred with his own emendations on it to the Bishopâ— and Clergy then Assembled in their Convocation Anno 1543. and by them Approved VVhich care that Godly Prelate took as himselfe confesseth in a Letter to a friend of his bearing date January 25. because the book being to come out by the Kings Censure and Judgement he would have nothing in the same which Momus himselfe could Reprehend VVhich being done it was published shortly after by the name of a Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian man with an Epistle of the Kings Prefixt before it in which it was commended to the Perusall of all his subjects that were Religiously disposed Now as the first book was ushered in by an injunction published in Sâ—ptember An. 1536. by which all Curates were required to Teach the people to say the Lords Prayer the Creed the Aveâ—ary and the Ten Commandements in the English Tongue â—o was the second countenanced by a Proclamation which made way unto it bearing date May the sixth 1541 whereby it was commanded that the English Bible of the Larger Vollumne should publiquely be placed in every Parish-Church of the Kings Dominions And here we are to understand that the Bible having been Translated into the English Tongue by the great paines of William Tyndall who after suffered for Religion in the Reigne of this King was by the Kings Command supprest and the reading of it interdicted by Proclamation the Bishops and other Learned men advising the reâ—traint thereof as the times then stood But afterward the times being changed and the People better fitted for so great a benefit the Bishops and Clergy Assembled in their Convocation Anno 1536. humbly petitioned to the King that the Bible being faithfully Translated and purged of such Prologues and Marginall Notes as formerly had given offence might be permitted from thenceforth to the use of the people According to which Godly motion his Majesty did not only give Order for a new Translation but in the Interim he permitted Cromwell his Viccar Generall to set out an Injunction for providing the whole Bible both in Latine and English after the Translation then in use which was called commonly by the name of Matthews Bible but was no other then that of Tyndall somewhat altered to be kept in every â—arish Church throughout the Kingdome And so it stood but not with such a Generall observation as the case required till the finishing of the new Translation Printed by Grafton countenanced by a learned Preface of Arch-Bishop Cranmer and Authorised by the Kings Proclamation of the sixth of May as before was said Finally that the people might be better made acquainted with the Prayers of the Church it was appointed a little before the Kings going to Bolloigne Anno 1545. that the Lâ—tany being put into the same forme almost in which now it stands should from thenceforth be said in the English Tongue So farr this King had gone in order to a Reformation that it was no hard matter for his Son or for those rather who had the Managing of Affaires during his Minority to go thorough with it In Reference to the Regall State he added to the Royal Stile these three Glorious Attributes that is to say Defender of the Faith The Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England and King of Ireland In what manner he obtained the Title of Supreme Head conferred upon him by the Convocation in the year 1530. and confirmed by Act of Parliament in the 26 yeare of his Reign hath been showne before That of Defender of the Faith was first bestowed upon him by Pope Leo the tenth upon the publishing of a Book against Martin Luther which Book being presented unto the Pope by the hands of Doctor Clark afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells hath been preserved ever since amongst the choisest Rarities of the Vatican Library Certain it is that the Pope was so well pleased
towards London where he was Proclaimed King with all due Solemnities He made his Royal Entry into the Tower on the last of January Into which He was conducted by Sir John Gage as the Constable of it and there received by all the Lords of the Council who with great Duty and Affection did attend His comings and waiting on Him into the Chamber of Presence did very chearfully swear Allegiance to him The next day by the general consent of all the Council the Earl of Hartford the King's Uncle was chosen Governour of His Person and Protectour of His Kingdomes till He should come unto the Age of eighteen years and was Proclaimed for such in all parts of London Esteemed most fit for this high Office in regard that he was the King's Uncle by the Mothers side very near unto Him in Blood but yet of no capacity to succeed in the Crown by reason whereof his Natural Affâ—ction and Duty was less easie to be over-carried by Ambition Upon which Gâ—ound of civil Prudence it was both piously and prudently Ordained by Solon in the State of Athens That no man should be made the Guardian unto any Orphan to whom the Inheritance might fall by the Death of his Ward For the first Handselling of his Office he Knighted the young King on the sixth of February Who being now in a capacity of conferring that Order bestowed it first on Henry Hoble-Thorn Lord Mayor of London and presently after on Mr. William Portman one of the Justices of the Bench being both dubbed with the same Sword with which He had received the Order of Knighthood at the hands of His Vncle. These first Solemnities being thus passed over the next care was for the Interment of the Old King and the Coronation of the New In order to which last it was thought expedient to advance some Confidents and Principal Ministers of State to higher Dignities and Titles then before they had the better to oblige them to a care of the State the safety of the King's Person and the preservation of the Power of the Lord Protectour who chiefly moved in the Design Yet so far did self-Interest prevail above all other Obligations and tyes of State that some of these men thus advanced proved his greatest Enemies the rest forsaking him when he had most need to make use of their Friendship In the first place having resigned the Office of Lord High Chamberlain he caused himself to be created Lord Seimour and Duke of Somerset Which last Title â—ppâ—rtaining to the King's Progenitours of the House of Lancaster and since the expiring of the Beauforts conferred on none but Henry the Natural Son of the King decealed was afterwards charged upon him as an Argument of his aspiring to the Crown which past all doubt he never aimed at His own turn being thus unhappily served the Lord William Parr Brother of Queen Katherinâ— Parr the Relict of the King deceased who formerly in the thirty fifth of the said King's Reign had been created Earl of Essex with reference to Ann his Wife Daughter and Heir of Henry Bâ—urchier the last Earl of Essex of that House was now made Marquess of Northampton in reference to her Extraction from the Bohunes once the Earls thereof John Dudly Viscount L'isle and Knight of the Garter having resigned his Office of Lord Admiral to gâ—â—tifie the Lord Protectour who desired to confer that place of Power and Trust on his younger Brother was in Exchange created Lord High Chamberlain of England and Earl of Warwick Which Title he affected in regard of his Discent from the Beauchamps who for long time had worn that Honour from whom he also did derive the Title of Viscount L'isle as being the Son of Edmond Sutton alias Dudley and of Elizabeth his Wife Sister and Heir of John Gray Viscount L'isle discended by the Lord John Talbot Viscount L'isle from Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick and Dame Elizabeth hisâ— Wife the direct Heir of Waren Lord L'isle the last of the Male Issue of that Noble Family In the next place comes Sir Thomas Wriothsley a man of a very new Nobility as being Son of William Wriothsley and Grand-Child of John Wriothsley both of them in their Times advanced no higher then to the Office of an Herald the Father by the Title of York the Grand-father by that of Garter King at Arms. But this man being planted in a warmer Sun grew up so fast in the esteem of King Henry the Eight that he was first made Principal Secretary afterwards created Baron of Tichfield advanced not long after to the Office of Lord Chancellour And finally by the said King installed Knight of the Garter An. 1545. For an addition to which Honours he was now dignified with the Title of the Earl of South-hampton enjoyed to this day by his Posterity These men being thus advanced to the highest Titles Sir Thomas Seimour the new Lord Admiral is Honoured with the Stile of Lord Seimour of Sudeley and in the beginning of the next year made Knight of the Garter prepared by this accumulation of Honours for his following Marriage which he had now projected and soon after compassed With no less Ceremony though not upon such lofty Aims Sir Richard Rich another of the twelve which were appointed for Subsidiaries to the great Council of Estate by the King deceased was prefered unto the Dignity of Lord Rich of Leez in Essex the Grand-father of that Robert Lord Rich who by King James was dignified with the Title of Earl of Warwick Anno 1618. In the third place came Sir William Willoughby discended from a younger Branch of the House of Eresby created Lord Willoughby of Parham in the County of Sussex And in the Rear Sir Edmond Sheffield advanced unto the Title of Lord Sheffield of Butterwick in the County of Lincoln from whom the Earls of Moulgrave do derive themselves All which Creations were performed with the accustomed Solemnities on the seventeenth of February and all given out to be designed by King Henry before his death the better to take off the Envy from the Lord Protectour whom otherwise all understanding people must needs have thought to be too prodigal of those Honours of which the greatest Kings of England had been so sparing For when great Honours are conferred on persons of no great Estates it raiseth commonly a suspicion amongst the people That either some proportionable Revenue must be given them also to the impoverishing of the King or else some way left open for them to enrich themselves out of the purses of the Subject These Preparations being dispatched they next proceed unto the Coronation of the King performed with the accustomed Rites on the twentieth of the same Moneth by Arch-Bishop Cranmer The Form whereof we finde exemplified in a Book called The Catalogue of Honour published by Thomas Mills of Canterbury in the year 1610. In which there is nothing more observable then this following Passage The King saith he being brought
much at once upon the People it was thought sit to smooth the way to the intended Reformation by setting out some Preparatory Injunctions such as the King might publish by his own Authority according to the example of His Royal Father in the year 1536. and at some times after This to be done by sending out Commissioners into all parts of the Kingdom armed with Instructions to enquire into all Ecclesiastical Concernments in the manner of a Visitation directed by the King as Supreme Head on earth of the Church of England Which Commissioners being distributed into several Circuits were accompanied with certain Learned and Godly Preachers appointed to instruct the People and to facilitate the work of the Commissioners in all Towns and Places where they fate And that the People might not cool or fall off again in and from that which had been taught them by the Learned Preachers they were to leave some Homilies to the same effect with the Parish-Priest which the Arch-Bishop had composed not onely for the help of unpreaching Ministers but for the regulating and instructing even of Learned Preachers Which Injunctions being agreed upon by such of the Great Council as favoured the Design of the Reformation and the Commissions drawn in due form of Law by the Counsel learned they were all tendered to the Lord Chancellour Wriothsley that the Authority of the Great Seal might be added to them Which he who was not to be told what these matters aimed at refused to give consent unto and so lost the Seal committed as before is said to the Custody of the Lord Great Master by whom the said Commissions were dispatched and the Visitours thereby Authorised in due form of Law And here it is to be observed that besides the Points contained in the said Injunctions the Preachers above-mentioned were more particularly instructed to perswade the People from Praying to the Saints from making Prayers for the dead from Adoring of Images from the use of Beads Ashes and Processions from Mass Diriges Praying in unknown Languages and from some other such like things whereunto long Custome had brought a Religious Observation All which was done to this intent That the People in all places being prepared by little and little might with more ease and less opposition admit the total Alteration in the face of the Church which was intended in due time to be introduced Now as for the Injuctions above-mentioned although I might exemplifie them as they stand at large in the First Edition of the Acts and Monuments fol. 684. yet I shall choose rather to present them in a smoother Abstract as it is done unto my hand by the Church-Historian the Method of them onely altered in this manner following That all Ecclesiastical Persons observe and cause to be observed the Laws for the abolishing the pretended and usurped Power of the Bishop of Rome and Confirmation of the King's Authority and Supremacy and four times in the year at the least that they teach the People That the one was now justly taken away according to the word of God and that the other was of most Legal Duty onely to be obeyed by all the Subjects That once a Quarter at the least they sincerely declare the Word of God disswading the People from Superstitious Fancies of Pilgrimages Praying to Images c. exhorting them to the Works of Faith Mercy and Charity 3. And that Images abused with Pilgrimages and Offerings thereunto be forthwith taken down and destroyed and that no more Wax-Candles or Tapers be burnt before any Image but onely two lights upon the High Altar before the Sacrament shall remain still to signifie That Christ is the very Light of the World That every Holy-Day when they have no Sermon the Pater-Noster Credo and Ten Commandments shall be plainly recited in the Pulpit to the Parishioners 5. And that Parents and Masters bestow their Children and Servants either to Learning or some honest Occupation That within three Moneths after this Visitation the Bible of the Larger Volume in English and within twelve Moneths Erasmus his Paraphrases on the Gospels be provided and conveniently placed in the Church for the People to read therein 20. And that every Ecclesiastical Person under the Degree of a Batchelour of Divinity shall within three Moneths after this Visitation provide of his own The New Testament in Latine and English with Erasmus his Paraphrases thereon And that Bishops by themselves and their Officers shall Examine them how much they have profited in the study of Holy Scripture That such who in Cases express'd in the Statute are absent from their Benefices leave Learned and expert Curates to supply their places 14. That all such Ecclesiastical Persons not resident upon their Benefices and able to dispend yearly xx pounds and above shall in the presence of the Church-Wardens or some other honest men distribute the fourtieth part of their Revenues amongst the poor of the Parish 15. And that every Ecclesiastical Person shal give competent Exhibition to so many Scholars in one of the Universities as they have hundred pounds a year in Church-Promotions That a fifth part of their Benefices be bestowed on their Mansion-Houses or Chancels till they be fully repaired 8. And that no Ecclesiastical Persons haunt Ale-houses or Taverns or any place of unlawfull Gaming That they Examine such as come to Confession in Lent whether they can recite their Credo Pater-Noster and Ten Commandments in English before they receive the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar or else they ought not to presume to come to God's Board That none be admitted to Preach except sufficiently Licenced 11. That if they have heretofore extolled Pilgrimages Reliques Worshipping of Images c. they now openly recant and reprove the same as a Common Errour groundless in Scripture 12. That they detect and present such who are Lettours of the Word of God in English and Fautours of the Bishop of Rome his pretended Power That no Person from henceforth shal alter any Fasting-day or manner of Common-Prayer or Divine Service otherwise then is specified in these Injuâ—ctions untill otherwise Ordered by the King's Authority 21. And that in time of High Mass he that sayeth or singeth a Psalm shall read the Epistle and Gospel in English and one Chapter in the New Testament at Mattens another at Even-song And that when nine Lessons are to be read in the Church three of them shal be omitted with Responds And at the Even-song the Responds with all the Memories By which last word I understand the Anniversary Commemoration of deceased Persons on the day of their deaths which frequently were expressed by the name Obits That every Dean Arch-Deacon c. being a Priest Preach by himself personally every year at least 27. That they Instruct their People not obstinately to violate the Ceremonies of the Church by the King Commanded to be observed and not as yet abrogated And on the other side that whosoever doth Superstitiously abuse them doth
the same to the great Perill of his Souls health 25. And that no Curate admit to the Communion such who are in Ranchor and Malice with their Neighbours till such controversies be reconciled That to avoid Contentions and strife which heretofore have risen amongst the King's Subjects by challenging of places in Procession no Procession hereafter be used about the Church or Church-yard but immediately before High-Mass the Letany shall be distinctly said or sung in English none departing the Church without just cause and all ringing of Bells save one utterly forborn That they take away and destroy all Shrines Covering of Shrines Tables Candlesticks Trindils and Rolls of Wax Pictures Paintings and other Monuments of feigned Miracles so that no Memory of them remain in Walls or Windows exhotting their Parishioners to do the like in their several houses That the Holy-day at the first beginning Godly-Instituted and ordained be wholly given to God in hearing the Word of God read and taught in private and publique Prayers in acknowledging their Offences to God and amendment in reconciling themselves to their Neighbours receiving the Communion Visiting the sick c. Onely it shall be lawfull for them in time of Harvest to labour upon Holy and Festival days and save that thing which God hath sent and that scrupulosity to abstain from working upon those days doth grievously offend God That a Register Book be carefully kept in every Parish for Weddings Christenings and Burials 29. That a strong Chest with an hole in the upper part thereof with three keys thereunto belonging be provided to receive the Charity of the People to the Poor and the same at convenient times be distributed unto them in the presence of the Parish And that a comely Palpit be provided in a convenient place That because of the lack of Preachers Curates shall read Homilies which are or shall be set forth by the King's Authority 36. That when any such Sermon or Homily shall be had the Primes and Hours shall be omitted That none bound to pay Tithes detain them by colour of Duty omitted by their Curates and so redoub one wrong with another 33. And whereas many indiscrete persons do incharitably condemn and abuse Priests having small Learning His Majesty chargeth His Subjects That from henceforth they be reverently used for their Office and Ministration sake 31. And that to avoid the detestable sin of Simonie the Seller shall lose his right of Patronage for that time and the Buyer to be deprived and made unable to receive Spiritual Promotion That to prevent sick persons in the damnable vice of Despair They shall learn and have always in readiness such comfortable places and Sentences of Scripture as do set forth the Mercies Benefits and Goodness of God Almighty towards all penitent and believing persons 30. But that Priests be not bound to go visit women in Child-bed except in times of dangerous sickness and not to fetch any Coars except it be brought to the Church yard 34. That all persons not understanding Latine shall pray on no other Primer but what lately was set forth in English by King Henry the Eighth and that such who have knowledge in the Latine use no other also that all Graces before and after Meat be said in English and no Grammar taught in Scholes but that which is set forth by Authority 39. That Chantry-Priests teach Youth to read and write And finally That these Injunctions be read once a Quarter Besides these general Injunctions for the whole Estate of the Realm there were also certain others particularly appointed for the Bishops onely which being delivered unto the Commissioners were likewise by them in their Visitations committed unto the said Bishops with charge to be inviolably observed and kept upon pain of the King's Majesties displeasure the effect whereof is as in manner followeth 1. That they should to the utmost of their power wit and understanding sâ—e and cause all and singular the King's Injunctions heretofore given or after to be given from time to time in and through their Diocess duly faithfully and truly to be kept observed and accomplished And that they should Personally Preach within their Diocess every Quarter of a year once at the least that is to say once in their Cathedral Churches and thrice in other several places of their Diocesses whereas they should see it most convenient and necessary except they had a reasonable excuse to the contrary Likewise that they should not retain into their Service or Houshold any Chaplain but such as were Learned and able to Preach the Word of God and those they should also cause to Exercise the same 2. And Secondly That they should not give Orders to any Person but such as were Learned in Holy Scripture neither should deny them to such as were Learned in the same being of honest conversation or living And Lastly That they should not at any time or place Preach or set forth unto the People any Doctrine contrary or repugnant to the effâ—ct and intent contained or set forth in the King's Highnesse's Homilies neither yet should admit or give Licence to Preach to any within their Diocess but to such as they should know or at least assuredly trust would do the same And if at any time by hearing or by report proved they should perceive the contrary they should then incontinent not only inhibit that Person so offending but also punish him and revoke their Licence There was also a Form of Bidding Prayer prescribed by the Visitours to be used by all Preachers in the Realm eiâ—her before or in their Sermons as to them seemed best Which Form of Bidding Prayer or Bidding of the Beads as it was then commonly called was this that followeth You shall Pray for the whole Congregation of Christ's Church and specially for this Church of England and Ireland wherein first I commend to your devout Prayers the King 's most Excellent Majesty Supreme Head immediately under God of the Spirituality and Temporality of the same Church And for Queen Katharine Dowager and also for my Lady Mary and my Lady Elizabeth the King's Sisters Secondly You shall Pray for my Lord Protectour's Grace with all the rest of the King's Majesty His Council for all the Lords of His Realm and for the Clergy and the Commons of the same beseeching God Almighty to give â—very of them in his degree grace to use themselves in such wise as may be to God's Glory the King's Honour and the VVeal of this Realm Thirdly You shall Pray for all them that be departed out of this VVorld in the Faith of Christ that they with us and we with them at the day of Judgement may rest both body and soul with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven Such were the Orders and Injunctions wherewith the King's Commissioners were furnished for their Visitation Most of them such as had been formerly given out by Cromwell or otherwise published and pursued but not
without some intermissions by the King deceased and therefore to be put in Execution with the greater safety For though the young King by Reason of his tender Age could not but want a great proportion of His Father's Spirit for carrying on a work of such weight and moment yet he wanted nothing of that power in Church-concernment which either Naturally was inherent in the Crown Imperial or had been Legally vested in it by Acts of Parliament Neither could His Being in Minority nor the Writings in His Name by the Lord Protectour and the Rest of the Council make any such difference in the Case as to invalidate the Proceedings or any of the Rest which followed in the Reformation For if they did the Objection would be altogether as strong against the Reformation made in the Minority of King Josias as against this in the Minority of the present King That of Josias being made as Josephus telleth us by the Advice of the Elders as this of King EDVVARD the Sixth by the Advice of the Council And yet it cannot be denyed but that the Reformation made under King Iâ—sias by Advice of His Council was no less pleasing unto God nor less valid in the Eys of all His Subjects then those of Jeboshaphat and Hezekiah in their Riper years who perhaps acted singly on the strength of their Own Judgements onely without any Advice Now of Josias we are told by the said Historian That When He grew to be twelve years old He gave manifest Approbation of His Piety and Justice For He drew the People to a conformable Course of Life and to the Detestation and Abolishing of Idols that were no Gods and to the Service of the Onely True God of their Fore-Fathers And considering the Actions of His Predecessours He began to Rectifie them in that wherein they were deficient with no less Circumspection then if He had been an Old Man And that which He found to be Correspondent and Advisedly done by them that did He both maintain and imitate All which things He did both by Reason of His Innated Wisdom as also by the Aâ—moâ—shment and Council of His Elders in following orderly the Laws not onely in matters of Religion but of Civil Politie Which puts the Parallel betwixt the two young Kings in the Case before us above all Exception and the Proceedings of King Edward or His Council rather beyond all Dispute Now whereas Question hath been made whether the twenty fourth Injunction for Labouring on the Holy Day in time of Harvest extend as well to the Lord's Day as the Annual Festivals The matter seems to any well-discerning eye to be out of Question For in the third Chapter of the Statute made in the fifth and sixth years of King Edward the Sixth when the Reformation was much more advanced then it was at the present the Names and Number of such Holy Days as were to be observed in this Church are thus layed down That is to say All Sundaies in the year the Feasts of the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ of the Epiphany c. with all the Rest still kept and there named particularly And then it followeth in the Act That it shall and may be lawfull for every Husband-man Labourer Fisher-man and to all and every other person or persons of what Estate Degree or Condition he or they be upon the Holy-Days afore-said in Harvest or at any other times in the year when necessity shall so require to Labour Ride Fish or Work any kind of work at their free-will and Pleasure any thing in this Act to the contrary notwithstanding The Law being such there is no question to be made in point of practice nor consequently of the meaning of the King's Injunction For further opening of which Truth we finde that not the Country onely but the Court were indulged the Liberty of attending business on that day it being Ordered by the King amongst other things That the Lords of the Council should upon Sundays attend the publique Affairs of this Realm dispatch Answers to Letters for good order of State and make full dispatches of all things concluded the Week before Provided alwaies That they be present at Common Prayer and that on every Sunday-Night the King's Secretary should deliver him a Memorial of such things as are to be debated by the Privy Council in the week ensuing Which Order being compared with the words of the Statute may serve sufficiently to satisfie all doubts and scruples touching the true intent and meaning of the said Injunction But as this Question was not startled till the Later Times when the Lord's Day began to be advanced into the Reputation of the Jewish Sabbath so was there nothing in the rest of the said Injunctions which required a Commentary Some words and Passages therein which seem absurd to us of this present Age being then clearly understood by all and every one whom they did concern Published and given in charge by the Commissioners in their several Circuits with great Zeal and Chearfullness and no less readily Obeyed in most parts of the Realms both by Priests and People who observed nothing in them either new or strange to which they had not been prepared in the Reign of the King deceased None forwarder in this Compliance then some Learned men in and about the City of London who not long since had shewed themselves of a contrary Judgement Some of them running before Authority and others keeping even pase with it but few so confident of themselves as to lagg behind It was Ordered in the twenty first That at the time of High Mass the Epistle and Gospel should be read in the English Tongue and That both at the Mattens and Even-Song a Chapter out of the New Testament should be also read And for Example to the rest of the Land the Complime being a part of the Evening Service was sung in the King 's Chapel on Mâ—nday in the Easter-week then falling on the eleventh of April in the English Tongue Doctour Smith Master of Whittington-College in London and Reader in Divinity at the King's-College at Oxford afterwards better known by the name of Christ-Church had before published two Books One of them written In Defence of the Mass The other endeavouring to prove That unwritten Verities ought to be believed under pain of Damnation But finding that these Doctrines did not now beat according to the Pulse of the Times he did voluntarily retract the said Opinions declaring in a Sermon at Saint Paul's Cross on Sunday the fifteenth of May that his said former Books and Teachings were not only erroneous but Heretical The like was done in the Moneth next following by Doctour Pern afterwards Master of Peter-House in Cambridge who having on Saint George's day delivered in the Parish-Church of Saint Andrew Vndershaft for sound Catholick Doctrine That the Pictures of Christ and of the Saints were to be adored upon the seventeenth day of June declared himself in the
him they sent him Prisoner to the Fleet where he remained from the twenty fifth of September till the seventh of January the King's Commissioners proceeding in the mean time without any disturbance With less aversness but with success not much unlike was the business entertained by Dr. Edmond Bonner then Bishop of London whom the Commissioners found far more tractable then could have been expected from a man of so rough a Nature and one so cordially affected to the Church of Rome The Commissioners Authorised for this Imployment were Sir Anthony Cook and Sir John Godsal Knights John Godsal Christopher Nevinson Doctours of the Laws and John Madew Doctour in Divinity who sitting in St. Paul's Church on the first day of September called before them the said Bishop Bonner John Royston the renowned Polydore Virgil and many other of the Dignitaries of the said Cathedral to whom the Sermon being done and their Commission openly read they ministred the Oath of the King's Supremacy according to the Statute of the thirty first of King Henry the Eighth requiring them withall to present such things as stood in need to be Reformed Which done they delivered to him a Copy of the said Injunctions together with the Homilies set forth by the King's Authority received by him with Protestation that he would observe them if they were not contrary to the Law of God and the Statutes and Ordinances of the Church Which Protestation he desired might be enrolled amongst the Acts of the Court But afterwards considering better with himself as well of his own Danger as of the Scandal and ill Consequents which might thence arise he addressed himself unto the King revoking his said Protestation and humbly submitting himself to His Majestie 's Pleasure in this manner following Whereas I Edmond Bishop of London at such time as I received the King's Majestie 's Injunctions and Homilies of my most Dread and Sovereign Lord at the Hands of His Highness Visitours did unadvisedly make such Protestation as now upon better consideration of my Duty of Obedience and of the evil Example that might ensue unto others thereof appeareth to me neither Reasonable nor such as might well stand with the Duty of a most humble Subject for so much as the same Protestation at my Request was then by the Register of the Visitation Enacted and put in Record I have thought it my Duty not onely to declare before your Lordships that I do now upon better consideration of my Duty renounce and revoke my said Protestation but also most humbly beseech your Lordships that this my Revocation of the same may be in like wise put in the same Records for a perpetual Memory of the Truth most humbly beseeching your Good Lordships both to take order that it may take effect and also that my former unadvised doings may be by your good Mediations pardoned of the King's Majesty Edmond London This humble carriage of the Bishop so wrought upon the King and the Lords of the Council that the edg of their displeasure was taken off though for a terrour unto others and for the preservation of their own Authority he was by them committed Prisoner to the Fleet. During the short time of whose Restraint that is to say on the Eighteenth day of the same Moneth of September the Letany was sung in the English Tongue in Saint Paul's Church between the Quire and the High Altar the Singers kneeling half on the one side and half on the other And the same day the Epistle and Gospel was also read at the High Mass in the English Tongue And about two Moneths after that is to say on the seventeenth day of November next following Bishop Bonner being then restored to his former Liberty the Image of Christ best known in those Times by the name of the Rood together with the Images of Mary and John and all other Images in that Church as also in all the other Churches of London were taken down as was commanded by the said Injunctions Concerning which we are to note That though the Parliament was then sitting whereof more anon yet the Commissioners proceeded onely by the King's Authority without relating any thing to that High Court in this weighty Business And in the speeding of this Work as Bishop Bonner together with the Dean and Chapter did perform their parts in the Cathedral of Saint Paul so Bellassere Arch-Deacon of Colchester and Doctour Gilbert Bourn being at that time Arch-Deacon both of London and Essex but afterwards preferred by Queen Mary to the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells were no less Diligent and Officious in doing the like in all the Churches of their Respective Jurisdictions according to the Charge imposed upon them by his Majestie 's Visitours In the mean time whilst matters were thus calmly Acted on the Stage of England all things went no less fortunately forward with the Lord Protectour in his War with Scotland in which he carried himself with no less Courage and Success when it came to blows then he had done with Christian Prudence before he put himself on the Expedition For having taken Order for his Forces to be drawn together he thought it most expedient to his Affairs to gain the start in point of Reputation with his very Enemies by not ingaging in a War untill they had refused all Terms of Peace And to this end a Manifest is dispatched unto them declaring the Motives which induced him to put this Kingdom into a posture of Arms. In which he remembred them of the Promises Seals and Oaths which by publick Authority had passed for concluding this Marriage That These being Religious Bonds betwixt God and their Souls could not by any Politick Act of State be dissolved untill their Queen should attain unto years of Dissent Adding that The Providence of God did therein manifestly declare it self in that the Male-Princes of Scotland failing the Kingdom was left unto a Daughter and in that King Henry left onely one Son to succeed That These two Princes were agreeable both for Years and Princely Qualities to be joyned in Marriage and thereby to knit both Realms into One That This Vnion as it was like to be both easily done and of firm continuance so would it be both profitable and Honourable to both the Realms That Both the Easiness and Firmness might be conjectured for that both People are of the same Language of like Habit and Fashion of like Quality and Condition of Life of one Climate not onely annexed entirely together but severed from all the World besides That as these are sure Arguments that both discended from one Original so by Reason that Likeness is a great Cause of Liking and of Love they would be most forcible Means both to joyn and hold them in one Body again That Profit would rise by extinguishing Wars between the two Nations by Reason whereof in former times Victories abroad have been impeached Invasions and Seditions occasioned the Confines of both Realms lay'd wast
or else made a Nursery of Rapines Robberies and Murthers the Inner Parts often deeply pierced and made a wretched Spectacle to all Eys of Humanity and Pity That The Honour of both Realms wâ—uld Increase as well in regard of the Countries sufficient not onely to furnish the Necessities but the moderate Pleasures of this Life as also of the People great in Multitude in Body able assured in Mind not onely for the Safety but the Glory of the Common State That Hereby would follow Assurance of Defence Strength to Enterprise Ease in sustaining publick Burthens and Charges That Herein the English dâ—sired no Pre-eminence but offered Equality both in Liberty and Privileâ—ge and in capacity of Offices and Imployments and to that end the Name of Britain should be assumed indifferent to both Nations That This would be the Complishment of their common Felicity in case by their Evil either Destiny or Advice they suffered not the Occasion to be lâ—st It was no hard matter to fore-see that either the Scots would return no Answer to this Declaration or such an Answer at the best as should signifie nothing So that the War began to open and some Hostilities to be exercised on either side before the English Forces could be drawn together For so it happened that a small Ship of the Kings called The Pensie hovering at Sea was assailed by The Lyon a principal Ship of Scotland The fight began a far off and slow but when they approached it grew very furious wherein the Pensie so applyed her Shot that therewith the Lyon's Ore-Loope was broken her Sails and Tacklings torn and lastly she was boarded and taken But as she was brought for England she was cast away by Negligence and Tempest near Hare-wich-Haven and most of her men perished with her Which small Adventure as Sir John Hayward well observes seemed to Prognosticate the Success of the War in which the English with a small Army gained a glorious Victory but were deprived of the Fruit and Benefits of it by the Storms at home All thoughts of Peace being lay'd aside the Army draws together at New-Castle about the middle of August consisting of twelve or thirteen thousand Foot thirteen hundred Men at Arms and two thousand Eight hundred light Horse Both Men and Horse so well appointed that a like Army never shewed it self before that time on the Borders of Scotland Over which Army so appointed the Lord Protectour held the Office of General the Earl of Warwick that of Liev-tenant General the Lord Gray General of the Horse and Marshal also of the Field Sir Ralph Vane Liev-tenant of all the Men at Arms and Demi-lances and Sir Ralph Sadlier Treasurer General for the Wars infeririour Offices being distributed amongst other Gentlemen of Name and Quality according to their well-deservings At Newâ—Castle they remained till the Fleet arrived consisting of sixty five Bottoms whereof one Gally and thirty four tall Ships were well-appointed for Fight the Residue served for carriage of Munition and Victuals The Admiral of this Fleet being Edward Lord Clynton created afterwards Earl of Lincoln on the fourth of May 1572. in the fourteenth year of Queen Elizabeth Making some little stay at Berwick they entred not on Scotish Ground till the third of September keeping their March along the Shore within Sight of the Fleet that they might be both Aided and Releived by it as Occasion served and making all along the Shore they fell at the end of two days into a Valley called The Peuthes containing six Miles in length in breadth about four hundred Pases toward the Sea and but one hundred toward the Land where it was shut up by a River The Issues out of it made into several paths which the Scots had caused to be cut in divers places with Traverse Trenches and thereby so incumbred the Army in their marching forwards till the Pioneers had smoothed the way that a small Power of the Enemy if their Fortune had been anwerable to the Opportunity might have given a very good Account of them to the rest of their Nation Which Dâ—fficulty being over-come and a Passage thereby given them unto places of more Advantage they made themselves Masters of the three next Castles for making good of their Retreat if the worst should happen Upon the first News of these Approaches enlarged as the Custome is by the Voice of Fame the Earl of Arran being then Lord Governour of Scotland was not meanly startled as being neither furnished with Foreign Aid nor much relying on the Forces which He had at Home Yet resuming his accustomed Courage and well-acquainted with both Fortunes He sent His Heralds through all parts of the Realm commanded the Fire-Cross that is to say two Fire-brands set in fashion of a Cross and pitched upon the point of a Spear to be advanced in the Field according to the Ancient Custome of that Country in Important Cases and therewithall caused Proclamation to be made That All Persons from sixteen years of Age to sixty should repair to Muscle-borough and bring their Ordinary Provision of Victuals with them Which Proclamation being made and the Danger in which the Kingdom stoodrepresented to them the People flocked in such Multitudes to their Rendezâ—vâ—us that it was thought fit to make choice of such as were most serviceable and dismiss the Rest. Out of which they compounded an Army the Nobility and Gentry with their Followers being Reckoned in consisting of thirty thousand Foot and two thousand Horse but poorly Armed fitter to make Excursions or to execute some suddain Inroad then to entertain any strong Charge from so brave an Army The Armies drawing near together the General and the Earl of Warwick rode towards the place where the Scotish Army lay to view the manner of their incamping As they were returning an Herald and a Trumpeter from the Scots overtook them and having obtained Audience thus the Herald began That He was sent from the Lord Governour of Scotland partly to enquire of Prisoners but chiefly to make offer that because he was desirous not onely to avoid profusion but the least effusion of Christian blood and for that the English had not done any unmanlike Outrage or Spoyle he was content they might return and should have his Safe-conduct for their peaceable passage Which said the Trumpeter spake as followeth That The Lord Huntly His Master sent Message by him that as well for brief Expedition as to spare expence of Christian blood He would fight upon the whole Quarrel either with twenty against twenty or with ten against ten or more particularly by single Combate between the Lord General and himself Which in regard the Scots had advantage both for Number and Freshness of men in regard also that for Supply both for Provision and Succours they were at home be esteemed an Honourable and charitable Offer To the Herald the Lord General returned this Answer That As his coming was not with purpose or desire to endamage their Realm
not put the same in Execution Which being done by Pope Innocent the Fourth in Consecrating certain English Bishops at Lyons in France without the King's Knowledge Consent it was observed by Matthew Paris to be dishourable to the King and of great Dammage to the Kingdom So much the more by how much the Mischief grew more common and the Design concealed under that Disguise became more apparent which plainly was that being bound unto the Pope in the stricter Bonds and growing into a Contempt of their Natural King they might the more readily be inclined to worke any Mischief in the Kingdom The Danger whereof being considered by King Edward the First He came at last to this Conclusion with the Popes then being that is to say That the said Priors and Convents or the said Deans and Chapters as the Case might vary before they proceeded to any Election should demand the King 's Writ of Congâ—â— D'â—esliere and after the Election made to crave his Royal Assent unto it for Confirmation of the same And so much was avowed by the Letters of King Edward the Third to Pope Clement the Fifth In which it was declared That all the Cathedral Churches in England were Founded and Endowed by His Progenitours and that therefore as often as those Churches became void of a Bishop they were filled again with fit Persons by His said Progenitours as in their own Natural and proper Right The like done by the French Kings to this very day partly by virtue of the Pragmatical Sanction established at the Councel of Basil and partly by the Concordate between King Francis the First and Pope Leo the Tenth And the like also challenged by the State of Venice within the Verge and Territories of that Republick For which consult the English History of that State Decad. 5. lib. 9. fol. 229. So that upon the whole matter there was no Innovation made as to this particular but a Restoring to the Crown an antient Power which had been Naturally and Originally in the Crown before But howsoever having the appearance of an Alteration from the received manner of Electings in the Church of Rome and that which was Established by the late King for the Realm of England it was repealed by Queen Mary and put into the former Chanel by Queen Elizabeth But from this Alteration which was made in Parliament in reference to the manner of Making Bishops and the way of Exercising their Authority when they were so made let us proceed unto such Changes as we finde made amongst the Bishops themselves The first whereof was the Election of Doctor Nicholas Ridley to the See of Rochester to which he had been nominated by King Henry the Eighth when Holbeck who preceded him was designed for Lincoln But the King dying shortly after the Translation of Holbeck was deferred till the Time of King Edward which was no sooner done but Ridley was chosen to succeed him although not actually Consecrated till the fifth of September A man of great Learning as the Times then were and for his excellent way of Preaching highly esteemed by the late King whose Chaplain he had been for many years before His death and upon that onely designed to this Preferment as the reward of his Service Being well studyed in the Fathers it was no hard matter for him to observe That as the Church of Rome had erred in the Point of the Sacrament so as well the Lutheran as the Zuinglian Churches had run themselves into some errour by opposing the Papists the one being forced upon the Figment of Consubstantiation the other to fly to Signs and Figures as if there had been nothing else in the blessed Eucharist Which being observed he thought it most agreeable to the Rules of Piety to frame his Judgement to the Dictates of the Antient Fathers and so to hold a Real Presence of Christ's Body and Blood in the Holy Sacrament as to exclude that Corporal Eating of the same which made the Christian Faith a scorn both to the Turks and Moors Which Doctrine as he stoutly stood to in all his Examinations at Oxford when he was preparing for the Stake so he maintained it constantly in his Sermons also in which it was affirmed That In the Sacrament were truly and verily the Body and Blood of Christ made forth effectually by Grace and Spirit And being so perswaded in his own Opinion he so prevailed by Discourse and Argument with Arch-Bishop Cranmer as to bring him also to the same for which consult the Acts and Mâ—n fol. a man of a most even and constant spirit as he declared in all his Actions but in none more then in the opposition which he made against Bishop Hooper in Maintainance of the Rites and Ceremonies then by Law Established of which we shall have opportunity to speak more hereafter In the next place we are to look upon the Preferment of Doctor Barlow to the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells succeeding in the place of Knight who dyed on the twenty ninth of the same September He had been once Prior of the Monastery of Bisham in the County of Berks from whence preferred to the See of Asaph in the end of February An. 1535. And in the April following Translated to the Church of St. David's During his sitting in which See he fell upon an honest and convenient Project for removing the Episcopal See from the decayed City of St. David's most incommodiously Scituate in the remotest Angle of all the Diocess to the rich Borough of Caer-marthen in the midst thereof in the Chief Church whereof being a Monastery of Grey-Friars the body of Edmond Earl of Richmond the Father of K. Henry the Seventh received Interment Which Project he presented to Cromwel being then Vicar General endearing it by these Motives and Propositions that is to say That being scituate in the midst of the Diocess it was very opportune for the profiting of the King's Subjects for the Preferment of God's Word for abolishing all Antichristian Superstition and settling in the Diocess the King's Supremacy That it was furnished with all things necessary for the conveniency of the Canons and might be done without any prejudice to the Friars for every one of which he offered to provide a sufficient Maintainance And to advance the work the more he offered to remove his Consistory thither to found therein a Grammar-Schole and settle a daily Lecture in Divinity there for the reducing of the Welsh from their ancient Rudeness to the Civility of the Time All which I finde in the Memorials of Sir Robert Cotton And unto these he might have added That he had a fair Episcopal House at Abberguilly very near that Town in which the Bishops of that Diocess have for the most part made their Dwelling So that all Parties seemed to have been provided for in the Proposition and therefore the more to be admired That in a Time so much addicted unto Alterations it should speed no better
For notwithstanding all these Motives the See remained where it was and the Bishop continued in that See till this present year in which he was made use of amongst many others by the Lord Protectour for Preaching up the War against Scotland For which and many other good Services already passed but more to be performed hereafter he was Translated to this See on the death of Knight but the precise Day and Time thereof I have no where found But I have found that being Translated to this See he gratified the Lord Protectour with a Present of eighteen or nineteen Manours which antiently belonged unto it and lying all or most part of them in the County of Sommerset seemed very conveniently disposed of for the better Maintainance of the Dukedom or rather of the Title of the Duke of Sommerset which he had took unto himself More of which strange Donations we shall finde in others the more to be excused because there was no other means as the Times then were to preserve the whole but by advancing some part thereof to the Spoil of others Anno Regni Edw. Sexti 2o. An. Dom. 1547 1548. THe Parliament ending on the twenty fourth day of December as before was said seems to have put a stop to all Publique Businesses as if it had been done of purpose to give the great Ministers of State a time of breathing But no sooner was the year begun I mean the second year of the King but that a Letter is sent from the Arch-Bishop to Doctour Bonnâ—r Bishop of London requiring him in the name of his Majesty and the Lords of his Council to proceed unto the Reformation of such Abuses as were therein mentioned and to give Order for the like to the rest of the Suffragans By antient Right the Bishops of London are accounted Deans of the Episcopal College and being such were by their place to signifie the pleasure of their Metropolitane to all the Bishops of the Province to execute his Mandates and disperse his Missives on all Emergency of Affairs as also to preside in Convocations or Provincial Synods during the vacancy of the See or in the necessary absence of the Metropolitane In which Capacity and not out of any Zeal he had to the Reformation Bishop Bonner having received the Arch-Bishop's Letters communicateth the Contents thereof to the rest of the Suffragan-Bishops and amongst others to Doctour Thomas Thirlby then Bishop of Westminster in these following words My very Good Lord AFter my most hearty Commendations These are to Advertise your Good Lordship that my Lord of Canterbury's Grace this present 28th of January sent unto me his Letters Missive containing this in Effect That my Lord Protectour's Grace with advice of other the King's Majestie 's Honourable Privy Council for certain Considerations them moving are fully resolved that no Candles shall be borne upon Candlemassâ— day nor also from henceforth Ashes or Palms used any longer requiring Me thereupon by his said Letters to cause Admonition and Knowledg thereof to be given unto your Lordship and other Bishops with celerity accordingly In consideration whereof I do send at this present these said Letters to your Good Lordship that you thereupon may give Knowledge and Advertisement thereof within your Diocess as appertaineth Thus committing your Good Lordship to Almighty God as well to fare as your Good heart can best desire Written in haste at my House in London the said 28th of January 1547 8. Such was the Tenour of this Letter the Date whereof doth very visibly declare that the Counsel was as suddain as the Warning short For being Dated on the 28th of January it was not possible that any Reformation should be made in the first particular but onely in the Cities of London and Westminster and the parts adjoyning the Feast of Purification following within five days after But yet the Lords drove on so fast that before this Order could be published in the remote parts of the Kingdom they followed it with another as little pleasing to the main body of the People concerning Images which in some places of the Realm were either not taken down at all as was required the year before by the King's Injunctions or had been re-advanced again assoon as the first Heats of the Visitation had began to cool Which because it cannot be expressed more clearly then in the Letters of the Council to the Lord Arch-Bishop and that the Reader be not troubled with any Repetitions I shall commit the Narrative thereof to the Letters themselves which are these that follow AFter Our Right Hearty Commendations to Your Good Lordship where now of late in the King's Majestie 's Visitations amongst other Godly Injunctions Commanded generally to be observed through all parts of this His Highness Realm One was set forth for the taking down of such Images as had at any time been abused with Pilgrimages Offerings or Censes albeit that this said Injunction hath in many parts of the Realm been quietly obeyed and executed yet in many other places much strife and contention hath risen and dayly riseth and more and more increaseth about the execution of the same Some men being so Superstitious or rather Willfull as they would by their good Wills retain all such Images still though they have been most manifestly abused And almost in every place is Contention for Images Whether they have been abused or not And whilst these men go on on bothsides contentiously to obtain their minds contending whether this Image or that Iâ—age hath been Offered unto Kissed Censed and otherwise abused Paris have in some places been taken in such sort as further Inconveniences be like to ensue if remedy be not found in time Considering therefore that almost in no place of this Realm is any sure quietness but where all Image be clean taken away and pulled down already to the intent that all Contention in every part of this Realm for this matter may be clearly taken away and the lively Image of Christ should not contend for the dead Imaâ—es which be things not necessary and without the which the Churches of Christ continued most Godly many years We have thought good to signifie unto you that his Highness Pleasure with the Advice and Consent of Vs the Lord Protectour and the rest of the Council is That immediately upon sight hereof with as convenient diligence as you may you shall not onely give Order that all the Images remaining in any Church or Chapel within your Diocess be removed and taken away but also by your Letters signifie unto the rest of the Bishops within your Province this his Highness pleasure for the like Order to be given by them and every of them within their several Diocesses And in the Execution hereof We require both you and the rest of the said Bishops to use â—uch forâ—-sight as the same may be quietly done with as Good satisfaction of the People as may be From Sommerset Place the 11th of Febr.
sorry Pittances were forced to put themselves into Gentlemens Houses and there to serve as Clerkâ— of the Kitching Surveyourâ— Receivers c. pag. 241. All which Enormities though tending so apparently to the Dâ—shonour of God the Disservice of the Church and the Disgrace of Religion were generally connived at by the Lords and others who onely had the power to Reform the same because they could not question those who had so miserably invaded the Churches Patrimony without condemning of themselves Thus leaving England for a while we are to take a short Survey of Affairs in Scotland into which the French had put ten thousand Souldiers three thousand of them being Almains under the Command of Mounsieur D' Essie who joyning with the Scots laid Siege before the Town of Haddington on Peter's-Eve For the Relief whereof a strength of one thousand three hundred Horse was sent from Berwick under the Conduct of Sir Robert Bowes and Sir Thomas Palmer who falling very unfortunately into the Hands of the Enemy were for the most part slain or taken The English notwithstanding made good the Town and held it out so long that in the end the Earl of Shrewsbury with a Power of sixteen thousand men of which there were four thousand Lansquenets or Germane Souldiers appeared in fight On whose approach the Enemy withdrew themselves and raised their Siege on or about the twentieth day of August giving great commendation to the English Garison for the notable service they had done in defence of the Town The Siege being raised the Earl of Shrewbury with his Forces returned for England leaving the Town well stored with Victuals and plentifully furnished with all manner of Ammunition which put the Souldiers of the Garison into so good heart that they made many Sallies out and frequently Skirmished with the French and Scots whom they found Quartered in the Villages and Towns adjoyning But the matter being taken into Debate by the Council of England it was Resolved especially by those who secretly envied at the Power and Greatness of the Lord Protectour That the keeping of the Town would not quit the Cost as being farthest from the Borders and not to be Relieved if it were distressed without the raising and imploying of a Royal Army And thereupon the Earl of Rutland was sent thither with three thousand of the Lansquenets and as many Borderers who coming to the Town on the twentieth of September sleighted the Works and having destroyed the Houses caused all the Ordnance and Carriages to be sent to Berwick and returned without Battail The voluntary quitting of which Town drew after it the loss of all the Peeces which we held in Scotland The English Forces being removed from the Town of Haddington the French immediately prepared for their going home-wards carrying a richer Lading with them then all the Arms and Ammunition which they brought at their coming For while the Army lay at the Siege at Haddington the Ministers of the French King were busied in Treaty with the Scots for putting the Young Queen into their Power transporting her into France and Marrying her unto the Daulphin But in this point they found the Council much divided Some thought That the Conditions offered by the Lord Protectour not till then generally known were to be embraced in regard it gave them an assurance of ten years Peace at the least and that if either of the Princes died within that time they should be left at Liberty to Order the Affairs of that Kingdom to the most Advantage But against this it was alledged by those of the opposite Party whom the French King had bought with ready Money and Anual Pensions That as long as the Queen remained amongst them they should never be Free from the Pretensions of the English From which there was no question but they would desist when they saw the Ground thereof to be taken away by the Queens Removal Of which Party besides those which were corrupted by the Gold of France were the Bishops and Clergy who being Zealous for the preservation of their Old Religion abominated nothing more then the Alliance with England And so the matter being carried in behalf of the French and there being now no further need of them for defence of the Countrey they gave Order to make ready their Shipping and nominated a set day for their Departure Which day being come they Coasted about Scotland by the Isles of Orkney took in the young Queen at Dunâ—britton-Castle and passing through St. George's Chanel arrived in Bretaigne whilest a strong Squadron of the English attended for their coming in the Narrow-Seas But this Departure of the French though it much weakened did not disanimate the Scots for making trial of their Fortune against the Hume-Castle and Fast-Castle remained amongst some others as Thorns in their Sides but they regained them both this year Hume-Castle they surprised by means of some of their own Nation who being reputed Friends and suffered to have free and frequent Access unto it had Opportunity both to discover the Weaknesses of it and by what Ways it might most easily be taken And being more cordially affected to their Old Country-men then their New Acquaintance they directed a select number of Souldiers to some secret Paâ—sages by which having fiâ—st climbed up a very steep Rock they found an Entrance into the Castle put the secure Garison to the Sword and possessed the Place leaving a fair warning unto all others Fast-Castle they surprised by a Warlike Stratageme For the Governour having Commanded the neighbouring Villages at a prefixed day to bring in their Contribution of Corn and other necessary Provision the Enemy makes Use of this Opportunity Souldiers habited like Peasants came at the day fraught with their Burthens whereof having eased their Horses they carry them on their shoulders over the Bridg which joyned two Rocks together and so gained Entrance the Watch-word being given they cast down their Burthens till the Sentinels open the Gates to their Fellows and become Masters of the Place The News of which Surprisals together with that of the Queens Removal being brought into the Court of England which then began to be divided into Sides and Factions there was no further Care taken for the Prosecution of the Scotish War which for the pâ—esent much refreshed that impoveâ—ished Kâ—ngdom Now while these Traverses of War were made in Scotland there was no solid Peace though no open Discord in the Church of England It hath been shewed that Bishop Gardiner having long lain Prisoner in the Fleet was on the Morrow after Twelâ—th-Day last restored to Liberty and permitted to return unto his Diocess Where contrary to the Promise made at his Enlargment he began to shew himself displeased with the King's Proceedings in the case of Images Concerning which he wrote a long Letter to the Lord Protectour on the twenty first of May and backed it with another of the sixth of June and otherwise appeared so cross to the
threatned more Danger then the other To which Request He did not onely refuse to hearken except the King would promise to restore the Catholick Religion as He called it in all His Dominions but expresly commanded that neither His Men noâ— Ammunition should go to the Assistance of the English An Ingratitude not easie to be marked with a fitting Epithete considering what fast Friends the Kings of England had alwaies been to the House of Burgundy the Rights whereof remained in the person of Charles with what sums of Money they had helped them and what sundry Wayâ— they had made for them both in the Nether-Lands to maintain their Authority and in the Realm of France it self to increase their Power For from the Marriage of Maximilian of the Family of Austriâ— with the Lady Mary of Burgundy which happened in the year 1478. unto the Death of Henry the Eight which fell in the year 1546 are just threescore and eight years In which time onely it was found on a just account that it had cost the Kings of England at the least six Millions of Pounds in the meer Quarrels of that House But the French being more assured that the English held some secret Practice with the Emperour then certain what the Issue thereof might be resolved upon a Peace with EDVVARD in hope of getting more by Treaty then he could by Force To this end one Guidolti a Florentine is sent for England by whom many Overtures were made to the Lords of the Council not as from the King but from the Constable of France And spying with a nimble Eye that all Affairs were governed by the Earl of Warwick he resolved to buy him to the French at what price soever and so well did he ply the Business that at the last it was agreed that four Ambassadours should be sent to France from the King of England to treat with so many others of that Kingdom about a Peace between the Crowns but that the Treaty it self should be held in Guisnes a Town belonging to the English in the Marches of Calice In pursuance whereof the Earl of Bedford the new Lord Paget Sir William Peter Principal Secretary of Estate and Sir John Mason Clerk of the Council were on the twenty first of January dispatched for France But no sooner were they come to Calice when Guidolâ—i brings a Letter to them from Mounsieur d' Rochpot one of the four which were appointed for that Treaty in behalf of the French In which it was desired that the English Ambassadours would repair to the Town of Bulloign without putting the French to the Charge and Trouble of so long a Journey as to come to Guisnes Which being demurred on by the English and a Post sent unto the Court to know the pleasure of the Council in that particular they received word for so the Oracle had directed that they should not stand upon Punctilioes so they gained the point nor hazard the Substance of the Work to preserve the Circumstances According whereunto the Ambassadours removed to Bulloign and pitch'd their Tents without the Town as had been desired for the Reception of the French that so they might enter on the Treaty for which they came But then a new Dâ—fficulty appeared for the French would not cross the Water and put themselves under the Command of Bulloign but desired rather that the English would come over to them and fall upon the Treaty in an House which they were then preparing for their Entertainment Which being also yielded to after some Disputes the French grew confident that after so many Condescensions on the part of the English they might obtain from them what they liâ—ted in the main of the Business For though it cannot otherwise be but that in all Treaties of this Nature there must be some Condescendings made by the one or the other yet he that yields the first inch of Ground gives the other Party a strong Hope of obtaining the rest These Preparations being made the Commissioners on both sides begin the Treaty where after some Expostulations touching the Justice or Injustice of the War on either side they came to particular Demands The English required the payment of all Debts and Pensions concluded on between the two Kings deceased and that the Queen of Scots should either be delivered to their Hands or sent back to Her Kingdom But unto this the French replyed That the Queen of Scots was designed in Marriage to the Daulphin of France and that She looked upon it as an high Dishonour that their King should be esteemed a Pensioner or Tributary to the Crown of England The French on the other side propounded That all Arrears of Debts and Pensions being thrown aside as not likely to be ever paid they should either put the higher Price on the Town of Bulloign or else prepare themselves to keep it as well as they could From which Proposals when the French could not be removed the Oracle was again consulted by whose Direction it was ordered in the Council of England That the Commissioners should conclude the Peace upon such Articles and Instructions as were sent unto them Most of them ordinary and accustomed at the winding up of all such Treaties But that of most Concernment was That all Titles and Claims on the one side and Defences on the other remaining to either Party as they were before the Town of Bulloign with all the Ordnance found there at the taking of it should be delivered to the French for the Sum of four hundred thousand Crowns of the Sun Of which four hundred thousand Crowns each Crown being valued at the Price of six Shillings and six Pence one Moity was to be paid within three days after the Town should be delivered and the other at the end of six Moneths after Hostages to be given in the mean time for the payment of it It was agreed also in relation to the Realm of Scotland That if the Scots razed Lowder and Dowglass the English should raze Rox-borough and Aymouth and no Fortification in any of those places to be afterwards made Which Agreement being signed by the Commissioners of each side and Hostages mutually delivered for performance of Covenants Peace was Proclaimed between the Kings on the last of March and the Town of Bulloign with all the Forts depending on it delivered into the power of the French on the twenty fifth day of April then next following But they must thank the Earl of Warwick for letting them go away with that commodity at so cheap a Rate for which the two last Kings had bargained for no less then two Millions of the same Crowns to be paid unto the King of England at the end of eight years the Towns and Territory in the mean time to remain with the English Nor was young Edward backward in rewarding his Care and Diligence in expenditing the Affair Which was so represented to him and the extraordinary Merit of the Service so highly magnified
the Mass which was not to be Celebrated but upon an Altar The Fourth That the Altars were Erected for the Sacrifices of the Law which being now ceased the Form of the Altar was to cease together with them The Fifth That as Christ did Institute the Sacrament of his Body and Blood at a Table and not at an Altar as appeareth by the three Evangelists so it is not to be found that any of the Apostles did ever use an Altar in the Ministration And finally That it is declared in the Preface to the Book of Common-Prayer That If any Doubt arise in the Use and Practising of the said Book that then to appease all such Diversity the Matter shall be referred unto the Bishop of the Diocess who by his Discretion shall take Order for the quieting of it The Letter with these Reasons being brought to Ridley there was no time for him to dispute the Commands of the one or to examine the Validity and Strength of the other And thereupon proceeding shortly after to his first Visitation he gave out one Injunction amongst others to this Effect That Those Churches in his Diocess where the Altars do remain should conform themselves unto those other Churches which had taken them down and that instead of the multitude of their Altars they should set up one decent Table in every Church But this being done a question afterwards did arise about the Form of the Lords Board some using it in the Form of a Table and others in the Form of an Altar Which being referred unto the Determination of the Bishop he declared himself in favour of that Posture or Position of it which he conceived most likely to procure an Vniformity in all his Diocess and to be more agreeable to the King 's Godly Proceedings in abolishing divers vain and superstitious Opinions about the Mass out of the Hearts of the People Upon which Declaration or Determination he appointed the Form of a Right Table to be used in his Diocess and caused the Wall standing on the back side of the Altar in the Church of Saint Paul's to be broken down for an Example to the rest And being thus a leading Case to all the rest of the Kingdom it was followed either with a swifter or a slower Pase according as the Bishops in their several Diocesses or the Clergie in their several Parishes stood affected to it No Universal Change of Altars into Tables in all parts of the Realm till the Repealing of the First Liturgie in which the Priest is appointed To stand before the middest of the Altar in the Celebration and the establishing of the Second in which it is required That The Priest shall stand on the North side of the Table had put an end to the Dispute Nor indeed can it be supposed that all which is before affirmed of Bishop Ridley could be done at once or acted in so short a Space as the rest of this year which could not give him time enough to Warn Commence and carry on a Visitation admitting that the Inconveniency of the Season might have been dispensed with And therefore I should rather think that the Bishop having received His Majestie 's Order in the end of November might cause it to be put in Execution in the Churches of London and Issue out his Mandates to the rest of the Bishops and the Arch-Deacons of his own Diocess for doing the like iâ— other Places within the compass of their several and Respective Jurisdictions Which being done as in the way of Preparation his Visitation might proceed in the Spring next following and the whole Business be transacted in Form and Mâ—nner as before laid down And this may be beleived the rather because the changing of Altars into Tables is made by Holinshead a Diligent and Painfull Writer to be the Work of the next year as questionless it needs must be in all Parts of the Realm except London and Westminster and some of the Towns and Villages adjoyning to them But much less can I think that the Altar-wall in Saint Paul's Church was taken down by the Command of Bishop Ridley in the Evening of Saint Barnaby's Day this present year as is affirmed by John Stow. For then it must be done five Moneths before the coming out of the Order from the Lords of the Council Assuredly Bishop Ridley was the Master of too great a Judgment to run before Authority in a Business of such Weight and Moment And he had also a more high Esteem of the Blessed Sacrament then by any such unadvised and precipitate Action to render it less Venerable in the Eyes of the Common People Besides whereas the taking down of the said Altar Wall is said to have been done â—n the first Saint Barnâ—â—y's Day which was kept Holy with the Church that Circumstance is alone sufficient to give some Light to the Mistake The Liturgie whâ—ch appointed Saint Barnaby's Day to be kept for an Holy-Day was to be put in Execution in all parts of the Realm at the Feast of Whitsun-tide 1549 and had actually been Officiated in some Churches for some Weeks before So that the first Saint Barnaby's Day which was to be kept Holy by the Rules of that Liturgie must have been kept in that year also and consequently the taking down oâ— the said Altar-Wall being done â—n the Evening of that day must be supposed to have been done above ten Moneths before Bishop Ridley was Translâ—ted to the See of London Let therefore the keeping Holy of the first Saint Barnaby's Day be placed in the year 1549 the Issuing of the Order from the Lords of the Council in the year 1550 and the taking down of the Altar-Wall on the Evening of Saint Barnaby's Day in the year 1551. And then all Inconveniences and Contradictions will be taken away which otherwise cannot be avoided No change this year amongst the Peers of the Realm or Principal Officers of the Court but in the Death of Thomas Lord Wriothesly the first Earl of South-hampton of that Name aâ—d Family who died at Lincoln-Place in Holâ—born on the thirtieth day of July leaving his Son Henry to succeed him in his Lands and Honours A Man Unfortunate in his Relations to the two Great Persons of that Time deprived of the Great Seal by the Duke of Sommerset and removâ—d from his Place at the Council-Table by the Earl of Warwick having first served the Turns of the one in lifting him into the Saddle and of the other in dismounting him from that High Estate Nor finde I any great Change thiâ— year amongst the Bishops but that Doctour Nicholas Ridley Bishop of Rechester was Transloted to the See of London on the twelfth of April and Doctoâ—r John Pâ—ynet Consâ—crated Bishop of Rochester on the twenty sixth of June By which Account he must needs be the first Bishop which received Episcopal Consecration according to the Foâ—m of the English Ordinal as Farrars was the fiâ—st who was advanced
after another till they sunk to eight The French on the other side began as low at one hundred thousand but would be drawn no higher then to Promise two that being as they affirmed the greatest Portion which ever any of the French Kings had given with a Daughter But at the last it was accorded that the Lady should be sent into England at the French King's Charges when She was come within three Moneths of the Age of Marriage sufficiently appointed with Jewels Apparel and convenient Furniture for Her House That at the same time Bonds should be delivered for Performance of Covenants at Paris by the French and at London by the King of England and That in case the Lady should not consent after She should be of Age for Marriage the Penalty should be one hundred and fifty thousand Crowns The perfecting of the Negotiation and the settling of the Ladie 's Joynture referred to such Ambassadours as the French King should send to the Court of England Appointed whereunto were the Lord Marshal of France the Duke of Guise the President Mortuillier the Principal Secretary of that King and the Bishop of Perigeux who being attended by a Train of 400. men were conducted from Graves-end by the Lord Admiral Clinton welcomed with Great Shot from all the Ships which lay on the Thames and a Vollie of Ordnance from the Tower and lodged in Suffolk-Place in South-wark From whence attended the next day to the King's House at Richmond His Majesty then remaining at Hampton-Court by reason of the Sweating Sickness of which more anon which at that time was at the Highest Having refreshed themselves that night they were brought the next day before the King to whom the Marshal presented in the name of his Master the Collar and Habit of St. Michael being at that time the Principal Order of that Realm in testimony of that dear Affection which he did bear unto him greater then which as he desired him to believe a Father could not bear unto his Natural son And then Addressing himself in a short Speech unto His Highness he desired him amongst other things not to give entertainment to Vulgar Rumours which might breed Jealousies and Distrusts between the Crowns and that if any difference did arise between the Subjects of both Kingdoms they might be ended by Commissioners without engaging either Nation in the Acts of Hostility To which the King returned a very favourable Answer and so dismissed them for the present Two or three days being spent in Feasting the Commissioners on both sides settled themselves upon the matter of the Treaty confirming what had passed before and adding thereunto the Proportioning of the Ladie 's Jointure Which was accorded at the last to the yearly value of ten thousand Marks English with this Condition interposed that if the King died before the Marriage all her Pretensions to that Jointure should be buried with him All Matters being thus brought unto an happy Conclusion the French prepared for their Departure at which Time the Marshal presented Monsieur Boys to remain as Legier with the King and the Maâ—quess presented Mr. Pickering to be his Majestie 's Resident in the Court of France And so the French take leave of England rewarded by the King in such a Royal and Munificent Manner as shewed he very well understood what belonged to a Royal Suitour those which the French King had designed â—or the English Ambassadours not actually bestowed till all things had been fully settled and dispatched in England hardly amounting to a fourth part of that Munificence which the King had shewed unto the French Grown confident of his own Security by this new Alliance the King not onely made less Reckoning of the Emperour 's Interposings in the Case of Religion but proceeded more vigorously then before in the Reformation the Building up of which upon a surer and more durable Bottom was contrived this year though not established till the next Nothing as yet had been concluded positively and Dogmatically in Points of Doctrine but as they were to be collected from the Homilies and the Publick Liturgie and those but few in Reference to the many Controversies which were to be maintained against the Papists Anabaptists and other Sectaries of that Age. Many Disorders had grown up in this little time in the Officiating the Liturgie the Vestures of the Church and the Habit of Church-Men began by Calvin prosecuted by Hooper and countenanced by the large Immunities which had been given to John a Lasco and his Church of Strangers And unto these the change of Altars into Tables gave no small Encrease as well by reason of some Differences which grew amongst the Ministers themselves upon that Occasion as in regard of of that Irreverence which it â—bred in the People to whom it made the Sacrament to appear less Venerable then before it did The People had been so long accustomed to receive that Sacrament upon their Knees that no Rule or Canon was thought necessary to keep them to it which thereupon was not imprudently omitted in the Publick Rubricks The Change of Altars into Tables the Practise of the Church of Strangers and Lasco's Book in Maintainance of sitting at the Holy Table made maâ—y think that Posture best which was so much countenanced And what was like to follow upon such a Liberty the Proneness of those Times to Heterodoxies and Prophaness gave just cause to fear Somewhat was therefore to be done to prevent the Mischief and nothing could prevent it better then to reduce the People to their Antient Custome by some Rule or Rubrick by which they should be bound to receive it kneeling So for the Ministers themselves they seemed to be as much at a Loss in their Officiating at the Table as the People were in their Irreverences to the Blessed Sacrament Which cannot better be expressed then in the words of some Popish Prelats by whom it was objected unto some of our chief Reformers Thus White of Lincoln chargeth it upon Bishop Ridley to omit his prophane calling of the Lord's Table in what Posture soever scituated by the Name of an Oyster-Board That when their Table was Constituted they could never be content iâ—placing the same now East now North now one way now another untill it pleased God of his Goodness to place it quite out of the Church The like did Weston the Prolocutour of the Convocation in the first of Queen Mary in a Disputation held with Latimer telling him with Reproach and Contempt enough that the Protestants having turâ—ed their Table were like a Company of Apes that knew not which way to turn their Tails looking one day East and another West one this way and another that way as their Fancies lead them Thus finally one Miles Hubbard in a Book called The Display of Protestants doth report the Business How long say they were they learning to set their Tables to minister the Communion upon First they placed it aloft where the High
work of his Hands or had been agitated and debated in no Head but his So did the Emperour Justinian in the Book of Institutes and Theodosins in the Code Boâ—iface in the Decretals and John the 22th in that part of the Canon Law which they call the Extravagants the honour of which Works was severally arrogated by them because performed by their Encouragement and at their Appointment But whosoever laboured in the Preparation of these Articles certain it is that they were onely a Rude Draught and of no signification till they had passed the Vâ—te of the Convocation and there we shall hear further of them In Reference to the Polity and good Order of the Common-Wealth there were two things done of great Importance the one redounding to the Present the other to the Future Benefit of the English Nation Of which last sort was the suppressiâ—g of the Corporation of Merchant-Strangers the Merchants of the Steel-Yard as they commonly called them Concerning which we are to know that the English in the Times foregoing being neither strong in Shipping nor much accustomed to the Seas received all such Commodities as were not of the growth of their own Country from the hands of Strangers resorting hither from all Parts to upbraid our Laziness Amongst which the Merchants of the East-Land â—arts of Almain or High Germany well known in former Stories by the Name of Easterlings used to bring hither yearly great quantities of Wheat Rye and other Grain as also Cables Ropes Masts Pitch Tar Flax Hemp Linen Cloth Wainâ—coats Wax Steel and other profitable Merchandises for the use of this Kingdom For their Encouragement wherein they were amply Privileged exempt from many Impositions which Merchant-Strangers use to pay in all other Countries erected into a Corporation by King Henry the Third commonly called Guilda Aula Theutonicorum permitted first to carry out Wools unwrought and afterwards a certain number of Cloaths when the English were grown skilfull in that Manufacture Their Court kept in a fair large House built near the Thames which from an open place wherein Steel had formerly been sold took the Name of the Steel-Yard Grown Rich and driving a great Trade they drew upon themselves the Envy as all other Merchant-Strangers did of the Londoners chiefly but generally of all the Port Towns of England who began now to think the Seas as open to them as to any others It was considered also by the Lords of the Council that by suffering all Commodities of a Foreign growth and a great part of the Commodities of the growth of England to be imported and exported in Out-landish Bottoms the English Merchants were discouraged from Navigation whereby the Shipping of the Realm was kept low and despicable It was therefore thought expedient in Reason of State to make void their Privileges and put the Trade into the hands of the English Merchant For the doing whereof the Easterlings or Merchants of the Steel-Yard had given cause enough For whereas they had antiently been permitted to ship away but eighty Cloaths afterwards one hundred and at last one thousand it was found that at this time they had transported in their own Bottoms 44000 English Cloatâ—â— there being but 1100 ship'd away by all Strangers else It was also found that besides the Native Commodities of their own growth they had brought in much Strangers goods of other Countâ—ies contrary to their agreement made with King Edward the Fâ—urtâ— and that upon a further search their Corporation was found imperfect their Numbers Names and Nations not sufficiently known This gave the Council ground enough for seising all their Liberties into the hands of the King and never after to restore them notwithstanding the great Embassies and Solicitations of the Cities of Hamborough and Lubeck and many other of the Hans-Towns in Germany who had seen their Factories and Factours And hereunto the seasonable coming of Sebastian Cabot of which more anon gave no small Advantage by whose Encouragement and Example the English Nation began to fall in Love with the Seas to try their Fortunes in the Discovery of unknown Regions and consequently to encrease their Shipping till by degrees they came to drive a wealthy Trade in most parts of the World and to be more considerable for their Naval Power then all their Neighbours But because all things could not be so well settled at the first as not to need the Help and Correspondencies of some foreign Nations it was thought fit to â—earken to an Entercourse with the Crown of Sweden which was then Opportunely offered by Gustavus Ericus the first of the Family now reigning By which it was agreed First That if the King of Sweden sent Bullion into England He might carry away English Commodities without Custom Secondly That He should carry Bullion to no other Prince Thirdly That if He sent Ozimus Steel Copper c. He should pay Custom for English Commodities as an English-man Fourthly That if He sent other Merchandise He should have free Intercourse paying Custom as a Stranger Whâ—reupon the Mint was set on work which brought the King for the first year the sum of twenty four thousand Pounds of which the sum of fourteen thouâ—and pounds was designed for Ireland and the rest lay'd up in the Exchequer some other waies were devised also that the Mint might be kept going and some agreement made with the Mint-Masters in the Point of Coynage which proved more to the Advantage of the King then the present profit of the Subject For hereupon on the ninth of July the base Money Coyned in the time of the King deceased was publickly decryed by Proclamation the Shilling to go for Nine Pence onely and the Groat for Three Pence And on the seventeenth of August then next following the Nine-Peny-piece was decryed to Six Pence the Groat to Two Pence the Half-Groat to a Peny By means whereof he that was worth one thousand pound on the eighth of July without any ill-husbandry in himself or diminution of his stock was found before the eighteenth day of August to be worth no more then half that Sum and so proportionably in all other Sums both above and under Which though it caused many an heavy heart and much repining at the present amongst all those whose Wealth lay most especially in Trade and Money yet proved it by degrees a chief Expedient for reducing the Coyn of England to it's antient Valew For on the thirtieth of October the Subjects had the taft of the future benefit which was to be expected from it there being then some Coyns Proclaimed both in Gold and Silver Pieces of thirty shillings ten shillings and five shillings of the finest Gold pieces of five shillings two shillings six pence one shilling six pence c. of the pureâ—t Silver Which put the Merchant in good hope that he should drive as rich a Trade under this young King as in the happiest dayes of his Predecessours before the Mony was debased And now we come
1282. that they had a Synodal Authority unto them committed to make such Spiritual Laws as to them seemed to be nâ—câ—ssary or convenient for the use of the Church Had it been otherwise King Edward a most Pious and Religious Prince must needs be looked on as a Wicked and most Lewd Impostour in putting such an horrible Cheat upon all His Subjects by Fathering these Articles on the Convocation which begat them not nor ever gave consent unto them And yet it is not altogether improbable but that these Articles being debated and agreed upon by the said Commitee might also pass the Vote of the whole Convocation though we finde nothing to that purpose in the Acts thereof which either have been lost or were never Registred Besides it is to be observed that the Church of England for the first five years of Queen Elizabeth retained these Articles and no other as the publick Tenents of the Church in point of Doctrine which certainly She had not done had they been commended to Her by a less Authority then a Convocation Such hand the Convocation had in canvasing the Articles prepared for them and in concluding and agreeing to so much or so many of them as afterwards were published by the King's Authority in the name thereof But whether they had any such hand in Reviewing the Liturgie and passing their Consent to such Alterations as were made therein is another Question That some necessity appeared both for the Reveiwing of the whole and the altering of some Parts thereof hath been shew'd before And it was shewed before by whose Procurement and Sollicitation the Church was brought to that necessity of doing somewhat to that Purpose But being not sufficiently Authorised to proceed upon it because the King 's sole Authority did not seem sufficient they were to stay the Leasure and Consent of the present Parliament For being the Liturgie then in force had been confirmed and imposed by the King in Parliament with the Consent and Assent of the Lords and Commons it stood with Reason that they should not venture actually on the Alteration but by their permission first declared And therefore it is said expresly in the Act of Parliament made this present year That The said Order of Common Service Entituled The Book of Common-Prayer had been Perused Explained and made fully perfect not single by the King's Authority but by the King with the Assent of the Lords and Commons More then the giving of their Assent was neither required by the King nor desired by the Prelats and less then this could not be fought as the Case then stood The signifying of which Assent enabled the Bishops and the rest of the Clergy whom they had taken for their Assistants to proceed to the Digesting of such Alterations as were before considered and resolved on amongst themselves and possibly might receive the like Authority from the Convocation as the Articles had though no such thing remaining upon Record in the Registers of it But whether it were so or not certain it is that it received as much Authority and Countenance as could be given unto it by an Act of Parliament by which imposed upon the Subject under certain Penalties Imprisonments Pecuniarie Mulcts c. which could not be inflicted on them by Synodical Acts. The Liturgie being thus Settled and Confirmed in Parliament was by the King's Command translated into French for the Use of the Isles of Guernsey and Jersey and such as lived within the Marches and Command of Calais But no such Care was taken for Wales till the fifth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth nor of the Realm of Ireland from that time to this King Henry had so far prepared the Way to a Reformation as His own Power and Profit was concerned in it to which Ends he excluded the Pope's Authority and caused Himself to be declared Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of Ireland by Act of Parliament And by like Acts he had annexed to the Crown the Lands of all Monasteries and Religious Orders together with thetwentieth Part of all the Ecclesiastical Promotions within that Kingdom and caused the like Course to be settled for the Electing and Consecrating of Arch-Bishops and Bishops as had been done before in England Beyond which as he did not go so as it seems King Edward's Council thought not fit to adventure further They held it not agreeable to the Rules of Prudence to have too many Irons in the Fire at once nor safe in Point of Policy to try Conclusions on a People in the King's Minority which were so far tenacionsly addicted to the Superstitions of the Church of Rome and of a Nature not so tractable as the English were And yet that Realm was quiet even to Admiration notwithstanding the frequent Embroilments and Commotions which so miserably disturbed the Peace of England which may be reckoned for one of the greatest Felicities of this King's Reign and a strong Argument of the Care and Vigilancy of such of His Ministers as had the chief Direction of the Irish Affairs At the first Payment of the Money for the Sale rather then the Surrendry of Bulloign eight thousand pounds was set apart for the Service of Ireland and shortly after out of the Profits which were raised from the Mint four hundred men were Levied and sent over thither also with a Charge given to the Governours that the Laws of England should be Carefully and Duly administred and all such as did oppose suppressed by Means whereof great Countenance was given to those who embraced the Reformed Religion there especially within those Counties which are called commonly by the name of the English Pale The Common-Prayer-Book of England being brought over thither and used in most of the Churches of the English Plantation without any Law in their own Parliaments to impose it on them But nothing more conduced to the Peace of that Kingdom then that the Governours for the most part were men of such Choice that neither the Nobility disdained to endure their Commands nor the inferiour sort were oppressed to supply their Wants Besides which as the King drew many men from thence to serve him in his Wars against France and Scotland which otherwise might have disturbed the common Peace so upon notice of some great Preparations which were made in France for the Assistance of the Scots he sent over to guard the Coast of Ireland four Ships four Barks four Pinnaces and twelve Victuallers By the Advantage of which Strength He made good three Havens two on the South-side toward France and one toward Scotland which afterwards made themselves good Booties out of such of the French as were either cast away on the Coast of Ireland or forced to save themselves in the Havens of it For the French making choice rather of their Passage by Saint George's Chanel then by the ordinary Course of Navigation from France to Edenborough fell from one Danger to another and for fear of being
expedient yet so that they take care for giving good and substantial Order to stay the inordinate and greedy Covetousness of such disordered People as should go about to alienate any of the Premises or otherwise to let them know that according to Reason and Order such as have or should contemptuously offend in that behalf should receive such punishment as to the quality of their doing should be thought most requisite Such were the Faculties and Instructions wherewith the Kings Commissioners were impowered and furnished And doubt we not but that they were as punctual and exact in the execution which cannot better be discerned then by that which is reported of their doings generally in all parts of the Realm and more particularly in the Church of St. Peter in Westminster more richly furnished by reason of the Pomps of Coronations Funerals and such like Solemnities then any other in the Kingdome Concerning which I find in an old Chapter-Book belonging to it that on May the 9. 1553. Sir Roger Cholmley Knight Lord Chief Justice and Sir Robert Bowes Knight Master of the Rolls the King's Commissioners for gathering Ecclesiastical Goods held their Session at Westminster and called before them the Dean of that Cathedral and certain others of the same House and commanded them by virtue of their Commission to bring to them a true Inventory of all the Plate Cups Vestiments and other Ecclesiastical Goodâ— which belonged to their Church Which done the Twelfth Day of the same Moneth they sent John Hodges Robert Smalwood and Edmund Best of the City of Westminster whom the said Commissioners had made their Collectours with a Commandment to the Dean and Chapter for the delivery of the said Goods which were by Robert Crome Clerk Sexton of the said Church delivered to the said Collectors who left no more unto the Church then two Cups with the Covers all gilt One white Silver Pot Three Herse-Cloths Twelve Cushions One Carpet for the Table Eight Stall-Cloths for the Quite Three Pulpit-Cloths Nine little Carpets for the Dean's Stall Two Table-Cloths the rest of all the rich Furniture massie Plate and whatsoever else was of any value which questionless must needs amount to a very great Sum was seized on by the said Collectâ—urs and clearly carryed away by Order from the said Commissioners The lâ—ke done generally in all the other parts of the Realm into which the Commissioners began their Circuits in the Moneth of April as soon as the ways were open and fit for Travail Their business was to seize upon all the Goods remaining in any Cathedral or Parish-Churches all Jewels of Gold and Silver Crosses Candlesticks Censers Chalices and such like with their ready Money As also all Copes and Vestments of Cloth of Gold Tyssue and Silver together with all other Copes Vestments and Ornaments to the same belonging Which general seizure being made they were to leave one Chalice with certain Table-Cloths for the use of the Communion-Board as the said Commissioners should think fiâ— the Jewels Piate and ready Money to be delivered to the Master of the King's Jewels in the Tower of London the Cope of Cloth of Gold and Tyssue to be brought into the King's Wardrobe the rest to be turned into ready Money and thaâ— Money to be paid to Sir Edmond Peckam the King's Cofferer for the defraying of the Charges of Hâ—s Majestie 's Houshold But notwithstanding this great Care of the King on the one side and the double-diligence of his Commissioners on the other the Booty did not prove so great as the Expectation In all great Fairs and Markets there are some Forestallers who get the bâ—st Peny-worths to themselves and suffer not the Richest and most gainful Commodities to be openly sold. And so it fared also in the present Business there being some who were as much before-hand with the King's Commissioners in embezelling the said Plate Jewels and other Furnitures as the Commissioners did intend to be with the King in keeping always most part unto themselves For when the Commissioners came to execute their Powers in their several Circuits they neither could discover all or recover much of that which had been purâ—oined some things being utterly embezelled by Persons not responsible in which Case the King as well as the Commissâ—oners was to lose his Right but more concealed by Persons not detectable who had so cunningly carryed the stealth that there was no tracing of their â—oot-stepâ— And some there were who being known to have such Goods in theâ—r possession conceived themselves too Great to be called in question connived at willâ—ngly by these who were but their Equals and either were or meant to bâ— Offendâ—urs in the very same kind So that although some Profit was hereby raised to the King's Exchequer yet the far greatest part of the Prey came to other hands Insomuch that many private men's Parlours were hung with Altar-Cloths their Tables and Beds covered with Copes instead of Carpets and Coveâ—lids and many made Carousing Cups of the Sacred Chalices as once â—elshâ—zzar celebrated his Drunken Feast in the Sanctified Vessels of the Temple It was a sorry House and not worth the naming which had not somewhat of this Furniture in it though it were onely a fair large Cushion made of a Cope or Altar-Cloth to adorn their Windows or make their Chairs appear to have somewhat in them of a Chair of State Yet how contemptible were these Trappings in comparison of those vast suâ—s of Money which were made of Jewels Pâ—ate and Cloth of Tyssue either conveyed beyond the Seas or sold at home and good Lands purchased with the Money nothing the more blessed to the Posterâ—ty oâ— them that bâ—ught them for being purchased with the Consecrated Treasures of so many Temples But as the King was plunged in Debt without being put to any extraordinary Charges in it so was He decayed in his Revenue without selling any part of His Crown Lands towards the payment of His Debts By the suppressing of some and the surrendring of other Religious Houses the Royal Intrado was so much increased in the late King's time that for the better managing of it the King erected first the Court of Augmentation and afterwards the Court of Surveyours But in short time by His own Profuseness and the Avaritiousness of this King's Ministers it was so retrenched that it was scarce able to finde Work enough for the Court of Exchequer Hereupon followed the dissolving of the said two Courts in the last Parliament of this King beginning on the first and ending on the last day of March Which as it made a loud noise in the Ears of the People so did it put this Jealousie into their Minds That if the King's Lands should be thus daily wasted without any recruit He must at last prove burthensom to the common Subject Some course is therefore to be thought on which might pretend to an increase of the King's Revenue and none more easie to be compassed then to begin
Shrewsbury and Pembroke served as principal Mourners the Funeral Sermoâ— Preached by Doctour Day then shortly to be re-established in the See of Chichester And if the Dead â—e capable of any Felicity in this present Woald He might be said to have had a special part thereof in this particular viz. That as He had caused all Divine Offices to be Celebrated in the English Tongue according to the Reformation which was made in the time of His Life so the whole Service of the Day together with the Form of Burial and the Communion following on it were Officiated in the English Tongue according to the same Model on the Day of his Obsequies But whilest these things were Acting on the Câ—urch of Westminster Queen Mary held a more beneficial Obsequie for Him as She then imagined in the Tower of London where She caused a Solemn Dirige in the Latine Tongue to be Chanted in the Afternoon and the next Day a Mass of Requiem to be sung for the good of His Sonl At which both She and many of Her Ladies made their accustomed Offerings according to the Form and Manner of the Church of Kome Such was the Life and such the Death of this Excellent Prince whose Character I shall not borrow from any of our own English Writers who may be thought to have been byassed by their own Affections in speaking more or less of Him then He had deserved But I shall speak Him in the words of that Great Philosopher Hierome Cardanus an Italian born and who professing the Religion of the Church of Rome cannot be rationally accused of Partiality in his Character of Him There was in Him saith he a towardly Disposition and pregnancie apt to all Humane Literature as who being yet a Childe had the knowledg of divers Tongues First of the English His own Natural Tongue of the Latine also and of the French Neither was He ignorant as I hear of the Greek Italian and Spanish Tongues and of other Languages peradventure more In His own in the French and in the Latine Tongue singularly perfect and with the like facility apt to receive all other Neither was He ignorant in Logick in the Principles of Natural Philosophie or in Musick There was in Him lacking neither Humanity a Princely Gravity and Majesty for any kind of towardliness beseeming a Noble King Briefly it might seem A Miracle of Nature to behold the Excellent Wit and Forwardness that appeared in Him being yet but a Childe And this saith he I speak not Rhetorically to amplifie things or to make them more then Truth is nay the Truth is more then I do utter So He in reference to His Perâ—onal Abâ—lities and Qualifications And for the rest that is to say His Piety to Almighty God His Zeal to the Reformation of Religion His Care for the well-ordering of the Common-Wealth and other Qualities belonging to a Christian King so far as they could be found in such tender years I leave them to be gathered from the Passages of His Life as before lai'd down Remembring well that I am to play the Part of an Historian and not of a Panegyrist or Rhetorician As for the manner of His Death the same Philosopher leaves it under a suspicion of being like to fall upon Him by some dangerous Practise For whether He divined it by his ART in Astrologie having Calculated the Scheme of His Nativity or apprehended it by the Course and Carriage of Business he made a dangerous Prediction when he fore-saw that the KING should shortly dye a violent Death and as he reporteth fled out of the Kingdom for fear of further danger which might follow on it Of any Publick Works of Piety in the Reign of this KING more then the Founding and Endowing of the Hospitals before-remembred I finde no mention in our Authours which cannot be affirmed of the Reign of any of His Predecessours since their first receiving of the Gospel But their Times were for building up and His unfortunate Reign was for pulling down Howsoever I finde His Name remembred amongst the Benefactours to the University of Oxford and by that Name required to be commemorated in all the Prayers before such Sermons as were Preached ordinarily by any of that Body in Saint Marie's Church or at Saint Paul's Cross or finally in the Spittle without Bishops-Gate on some solemn Festivals But possibly it is that his Beneficence did extend no further then either to the Confirmation of such Endowments as had been made unto that University by King Henry the Eight or to the excepting of all Colleges in that and the other University out of the Statute or Act of Parliament by which all Chantries Colleges and Free-Chapels were conferred upon Him The want of which Redemption in the Grant of the said Chantries Colleges Free-Chapels to King Henry the Eight strook such a Terrour unto the Students of both Universities that they could never think themselves secure till the Expiring of that Statute by the Death of the King notwithstanding a very Pious and Judicious Letter which had been written to the King in that behalf by Doctour Richard Cox then Dean of Christ-Church and Tâ—â—our to His Son Prince Edward But not to leave this Reign without the Testimony of some Work of Piety I cannot but remember the Foundation of the Hospital of Christ in Abindon as a Work not onely of this Time but the King 's own Act. A Guild or Brother-hood had been there founded in the Parish-Church of Saint Hellens during the Reign of King Henry the Sixth by the procurement of one Sir John Gollafrie a near Neighbouring Gentleman for Building and Repairing certain Bridges and High-waies about the Town as also for the Sustenance and Relief of thirteen poor People with two or more Priests for performing all Divine Offices unto those of the Brother-hood Which being brought within the Compass of the Act of Parliament by which all Chantries Colleges and Free-Chappels were conferred on the Crown the Lands hereof were seized on to the use of the King the Repairing of the Waies and Bridges turned upon the Town and the Poor left Destitute in a manner of all Relief In which Condition it remained till the last Year of the King when it was moved by Sir John Mason one of the Masters of Requests a Town-born Childe and one of the poorest mens Children in it to erect an Hospital in the same and to Endow it with such of the Lands belonging to the former Brother-hood as remained in the Crown and to charge it with the Services and Pious Uses which were before incumbent on the old Fraternity The Suitour was too powerfull to be denyed and the Work too Charitable in it self to be long demurr'd on so that he was easily made Master also of this Request Having obtained the King's Consent he caused a handsome Pile of Building to be Erected near the Church distributed into several Lodgings for the Use of the Poor and one convenient Common-Hall
one another by the known Laws of the Land which neither Acts of Parliament nor the last Will and Testament of the King Deceased were of power to alter That the young Queen of Scots was an Alien born by Consequence uncapable of any Inheritance in the Realm of England and had besides preferred the Alliance of the French before that of His Majesty which rendered Her as unworthy as she was uncapable That for the better carrying on of that Blessed Work of Reformation the Peace and Happiness of His People the preventing of all Emergent Mischiefs and His own everlasting Fame it was not possible to make a more happy Provision then by transferring the Crown to the Lady Jane a Lady of such Excellent Virtues as were sufficient to adorn the Richest Diadem That there was no Question to be made but that His Majesty knew as well as any the admirable qualities of that Matchless Lady Her Zeal to the Religion here by Him established the agreeableness of Her Conversation with His own Affections and could not but conceive that Nation to be infinitely happier then all others which might fall under the Command of so mild a Government And finally That he was bound by His Duty to God the Light of His own Conscience and the Love He had to all His Subjects to lay aside all Natural Affections to His Father's House in respect of that great Obligation which He had to God's Glory and the true Religion following therein the Example of our Lord and Saviour who looked both for his Brothers and Sisters amongst his Disciples without relating to his nearest Kindred by Joseph or Mary By these Suggestions and Inducements he much enclined the King to hearken to his Propositions For furtherance whereof he caused such as were about Him to entertain Him with continual Discourses of the Divine Perfections and most Heavenly Graces of the Lady Jane the high Esteem in which She was with all the Subjects for Her Zeal and Piety the everlasting Fame which would wait upon Him by providing such a Successour to enjoy the Crown in whom Virtues would survive to succeeding Ages Then which no Musick could sound sweeter in the Ears of the King whom he knew to have an affectionate Sympathy with that Excellent Lady as being much of the same Age brought up in the same Studies as near to Him in the sweetness of Her Disposition as She was in Blood and of a Conversation so agreeable to Him as if They had been but the same Person in divers Habits And they all plied their Game so cunningly that the weak King not being able to withstand so many Assaults did at last condescend to that which he found not onely most conformable to their Importunities but to His own Affections also Order was taken thereupon that an Instrument should be drawn in due Form of Law for the transposing of the Crown to the Children of the Lady Frances Duchess of Suffolk and Daughter to Mary the French Queen one of the Sisters of King Henry His Majeâ—tie's â—â—ther In which Instrument nothing was to be defective which either could be drawn from the Grounds of Law or the Rules of Polity to justifie and endear the Action In drawing up whereof there was none thought fitter to be used then Sir William Cecil one of the Chief Secretaries of Estate who having before served Dudlie's Turn against his old Master the Duke of Sommerset was looked on as the Readiest Man for the present Service The Pretensions taken from the Law for excluding the King's two Sisters from the Right of Succession were grounded First Upon the Invalidity of their Mother's Marriage both being made void by Legal Sentences of Divorce and those Divorces ratified by Acts of Parliament In which the said two Sisters were declared to be illegitimate and consequently uncapable of any of those Favours which were intended to them by the Act of Succession made in the thirty fifth year of the late King Henry or by the last Will and Testament of that King which was built upon it In the next Place it was pretended that the said two Sisters Mary and Elizabeth being but of half Blood to the King now Reigning admitting them to have been born in lawfull Wedlock were not in any Capacity by the Common-Law the old good Law of England to be Heirs unto Him or to Succeed in any Part of that Inheritance which came unto Him by His Father It was considered also that by the known Rules and Principles of the Common-Law no manner of Person was Inheritable to any Estate of Lands or Tenements in the Realm of England who was not born under the King's Allegiance as King of England but in the case of Naturalization by Act of Parliament Which seemed to be a sufficient Bar against all Titles and Demands for the Line of Scotland although derived from Margaret the Eldest Daughter of King Henry the Seventh And whereas the Lady Frances Duchess of Suffolk might seem both by the Law of Nature and the Right of Succession to have precedency in Title before her Daughter yet was no Injury offered to her in regard that she was willing to pass by all her Personal Claims for the Preferment of her Children Which Pretermissions of the Mother were neither new nor strange in the Succession to the Crown of this Kingdom Not new because the like was done by Maud the Emperess for the Advancement of her Son King Henry the Second nor strange because it hâ—d been lately practised in the Person of the Lady Margaret Countess of Richmond in giving Way to the Preferment of King Henry the Seventh the first King of the House now Regnant The Reasons or Pretexts which seemed to be built on Polity and Point of State were first the unavoydable Danger of Reducing this Free and Noble Realm under the Vassalage and Servitude of the Bishop of Rome if either of the King 's two Sisters in their several Turns should marry with a Foreign Prince of that Religion or otherwise by the Transport of their own Affections submit their Scepters to the Pope It was considered also That by such Marriages not onely many Foreign Customs and Laws would be introduced but that there might follow an Abolishment of those Antient Laws upon which the Native Rights of all the Subjects seemed to have dependance Besides that possibly the Realm might hereby be annexed to some greater Kingdom of which in time it would be reckoned for a Member and consequently be reduced unto the Form of a Province to the utter Subversion of the Antient Dignity and Estate thereof Which whensoever it should happen it was neither impossible nor improbable that the People upon a just Sence of the Indignities Pressures might elect some popular and seditious man to be their King who to countenance his own unworthiness obscurity would little regard what Contumelie he cast upon the falling Family of the Kings before him To which perchance some further Countenance might be
conformity as to believe that she was catholickly affected But the Queen was not the onely one who believed so of her though she behaved her self so warily as not to come within the danger of the Laws for acting any thing in opposition unto that Religion which was then established Concerning which there goes a story that when a Popish Priest had urged her very earnestly to declare her judgment touching the Presence of Christ in the blessed Sacrament she very cautelously resolved the point in these following Verses 'T was God the word that spake it He took the bread and bâ—ake it And what the Word did make it That I believe and take it But all this caution notwithstanding her aversness from the Church of Rome was known sufficiently not to be altered while she lived and therefore she to live no longer to be the occasion of continual fears and jealousies to the Catholick party The times were then both sharp and bloody and a great persecution was designed against the Protestants in all parts of the Kingdom At what time Bishop Gardiner was heard to say That it was to no purpose to cut off the boughs and branches if they did not also lay the Ax to the root of the Tree More plainly the Lord Paget in the hearing of some of the Spaniaâ—ds That the King should never have a quiet Government in England if her â—â—ad were not stricken off from her shoulders With which the King being made acquainted he resolved to use his best endeavour not onely to preserve her life but obtain her liberty For he considered with himself that if the Princess should be taken away the right of the Succession would remain in the Queen of Scots who being married to the Daulphin of Frâ—â—ce would be a means of joyning this Kingdom unto that and thereby gain unto the French the Soveraignty or supream command above all other Kings in Europe He considered also with himself that the Queen was noâ— very healthy supposed at that â—ime to be with child but thought by others of more judgment not to be like to bring him any children to succeed in the Crown and hoped by such a signall favour to oblige the Princess to accept him for her husband on the Queens decease by means whereof he might still continue Master of the treasures and strength of England in all his wars against the French or any other Nation which maligned the greatness of the Austrian Family Upon which grounds he dealt so effectually with the Queen that order was given about a fortnight after Easter to the Lord Williams and Sir Henry Bedingfield to bring their prisoner to the Court which command was not more cheerfully executed by the one than stomach'd and repin'd at by the other Being brought to Hampton Court where the Queen then lay she was conducted by a back way to the Prince's Lodgings where she continued a fortnight and more without being seen or sent to by any body Bedingfield and his guards being still about her so that she seemed to have changed the place but not the Prison and to be so much nearer danger by how much she was nearer unto those who had power to work it At last a visit was bestowed upon her but not without her earnest sute in that behalf by the Bishop of Winchester Lord Chancellor the Earls of Arundel and Shrewsbery and Sir William Peter whom she right joyfully received desiring them to be a means unto the Queen that she might be freed from that restraint under which she had been kept so long together Which being said the Bishop of Winchester kneeling down besought her to submit her self to the Queen that being as he said the onely probable expedient to effect her liberty To whom she answered as before that rather than she would betray her innocence by such submission she would be content to lie in prison all the days of her life For by so doing said she I must confess my self to be an offender which I never was against her Majesty in thought word or deed and where no just offence is given there needs no submission Some other Overtures being made to the same effect but all unto as little purpose she is at last brought before the Queen whom she had not seen in more than one year before about ten of the clock at night before whom falling on her knees she desired God to preserve her Malesty not doubting as she said but that she should prove her self to be as good a Subject to her Majesty as any other whosoever Being first dealt with by the Queen to confess some offence against her self and afterwards to acknowledge her imprisonment not to be unjust she absolutely refused the one and very handsomely declined the other So that no good being to be gotten on her on either hand she was dismissed with some uncomfortable words from the present Enterview and about a week after was discharged of Bedingfield and his guard of soldiers It was reported that King Philip stood behind the Hangings and hearkned unto every word which passed between them to the end that if the Queen should grow into any extremity he might come in to pacifie her displeasures and calm her passions He knew full well how passionately this Princess was beloved by the English Nation and that he could not at the present more endear himself to the whole body of the people than by effecting her enlargment which shortly after being obtained she was permitted to retire to her own houses in the Country remaining sometimes in one and sometimes in another but never without fear of being remanded unto prison till the death of Gardiner which hapned on the 12th of November then next following Some speech there was and it was earnestly endeavoured by the Popish Party of marrying her to Emanuel Philebert Duke of Savoy as being a Prince that lived far off and where she could give no encouragement to any male-contented party in the Realm of England Against which none so much opposed as the King who had a designe on her for himself as before is said and rather for himself than for Charls his son though it be so affirmed by Cambden the Princess being then in the twenty second year of her age whereas the young Prince was not above seven or eight So that a resolution being finally fixed of keeping her within the Kingdom she lived afterwards for the most part with less vexations but not without many watchfull eyes upon all her actions till it pleased God to call her to the Crown of England She had much profited by the Pedagogie of Ascham and the rest of her Schoolmasters but never improved her self so much as in the School of Affliction by which she learned the miseries incident to Subjects when they groan under the displeasure of offended Princes that the displeasures of some Princes are both made and cherished by the art of their Ministers to the undoing of too many innocent persons
thee delivereâ— to thee only be thanks honour and praâ—se for ever Amen Which said she mounted into her Chariot with so cleer a spirit as if she had been made for that dayes solemnity Entertained all the way she went with the joyful shouts and acclamations of God save the Queen which she repaid with such a modest affability and so good a grace that it drew tears of joy from the eyes of some with infinite prayers and thanksgiving from the hearts of all but nothing more indeared her to them than the accepting of an English Bible richly gilt which was let down unto her from one of the Pageants by a child representing Truth At the sight whereof she first kissed both her hands with both her hands she received the book which first she kiss'd and after laid unto her bosome as the nearest place unto her heart giving the City greater thanks for that excellent Gift than for all the rest which plentifully had been that day bestowed upon her and promised to be diligent in the reading of it By which and many other acts of a popular piety with which she passed away that day she did not only gain the hearts of all them that saw her but they that saw her did so magnifie her most eminent Graces that they procured the like affections in the hearts of all others also On the next morning with like magnificence and splendor she is attended to the Church of St Peter in Westminster where she was crowned according to the Order of the Roman Pontifical by Dr Owen Oglethorp Bishop of Carlisle the only man among all the Bishops who could be wrought on by her to perform that office Whether it were that they saw some alteration coming to which they were resolved not to yield conformity so that they could not be in a worse case upon this refusal than they should be otherwise or that they feared the Popes displeasure if they should do an act so contrary unto his pretensions without leave first granted or that they had their own particular animosities and spleens against her as the Archbishop of York particularly for his being deprived of the seal is not certainly known None more condemned for the refusal than the Bishop of Ely as one that had received his first preferments from the King her father and who complyed so far in the time of King Edward as to assist in the composing of the publick Liturgy and otherwise appeared as forward in the reformation as any other of that Order So that no reason can be given either for his denial now to perform that service or afterwards for his not complying with the Queens proceedings but that he had been one of those which were sent to Rome to tender the submission of the Kingdom to the Pope still living and could not now appear with honour in any such action as seemed to carry with it a repugnancy if not a manifest inconsistency with the said ingagement It cannot be denyed but that there were three Bishops living of King Edward's making all of them zealously affected to the reformation And possibly it may seem strange that the Queen received not the Crown rather from one of their hands than to put her self unto the hazard of so many denyals as had been given her by the others But unto this it may be answered that the said Bishops at that time were deprived of their Sees but whether justly or unjustly could not then be questioned and therefore not in a capacity to perform that service Besides there being at that time no other form established for a Coronation than that which had much in it of the Ceremonies and superstitions of the Church of Rome she was not sure that any of the said three Bishops would have acted in it without such alterations and omissions in the whole course of that Order as might have render'd the whole action questionable amongst captious men and therefore finally she thought it more conducible to her reputation amongst forein Princes to be Crowned by the hands of a Catholick Bishop or one at least which was accounted to be such than if it had been done by any of the other Religion And now the Parliament draws on summoned to begin on the 25th of that month being the Anniversary day of St Paul's conversion a day which seemed to carry some good Omen in it in reference to that great work of the Reformation which was therein to be established The Parliament opened with an eloquent and learned Sermon preached by Dr Cox a man of good credit with the Queen and of no less esteem with the Lords and Commons who caried any good affection to the memory of King Edward the 6th The chusing of which man to perform that service was able of it self to give some intimation of the Queens design to most of the Auditors though to say truth the Bishops refusing to perform the Ceremony of the Coronation had made themselves uncapable of a further trust Nor could the Queens design be so closely caried but that such Lords and Gentlemen as had the managing of elections in their several Countries retained such men for Members of the House of Commons as they conceived most likely to comply with their intentions for a Reformation Amongst which none appeared more active than Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk whom the Queen had taken into her Council Henry Fitz-allen Earl of Arundel whom she continued in the Office of Lord Steward and Sir William Coecil whom she had restored to the place of Secretary to which he had been raised by King Edward the 6th Besides the Queen was young unmaried and like enough to entertain some thoughts of an husband so that it can be no great marvel not only if many of the Nobility but some even of the Gentry also flattered themselves with possibilities of being the man whom she might chuse to be her partner in the Regal Diadem Which hopes much smoothed the way to the accomplishment of her desires which otherwise might have proved more rugged and unpassable than it did at the present Yet notwithstanding all their care there wanted not some rough and furious spirits in the House of Commons who eagerly opposed all propositions which seemed to tend unto the prejudice of the Church of Rome Of which number none so violent as Story Dr. of the Lawes and a great instrument of Bonner's butcheries in the former Reign Who being questioned for the cruelty of his executions appeared so far from being sensible of any errour which he then committed as to declare himself to be sorry for nothing more than that instead of lopping off some few boughs and branches he did not lay his axe to the root of the tree and though it was not hard to guess at how high a mark the wretches malice seemed to aim and what he meant by laying his axe to the root of the tree yet passed he unpunished for the present though divine vengeance brought him in
City of Cambray in which all differences were concluded also between France and Spain all other Articles being accorded the restitution of Calais to the Queen of England seemed the onely obstacle by which the general peace of Christendom was at the point to have been hindred But the Queen either preferring the publick good before private interest or fearing to be left alone if she should stand too obstinately upon that particular came at the last to this agreement viz. That Calais should remain for the tearm of eight years then next following in the hands of the French that at the end of the said tearm it should be deliveâ—ed unto the English or otherwise the French King should pay unto the Queen the sum of 500000 Crowns According unto which Agreement Peace was proclaimed in London on the 7th of April between the Queens Majesty on the one part and the French King on the other as also between her and the King Dolphin with his wife the Queen of Scots and all the Subjects and Dominions of the said four Princes The Proclamation published by Garter and Norrey Kings at Arms accompanied with three other Heralds and five Trumpeters the Lord Mayor and Aldermen in their Scarlet Gowns being present on horseback But long the French King lived not to enjoy the benefit of this general Peace unfortunately wounded in Paris at a Tilt or Tournament by Count Monâ—gomery of which wound he shortly after died on the 10th of July leaving be hind him four sons Francis Charls Henry and another Francis of which the three first according to their seniority enjoyed that Kingdom And though she had just cause to be offended with the young King Francis for causing the Queen of Scots his wife to take upon her self the Title and Arms of England yet she resolved to bestow a royal Obsequy on the King deceased which was performed in St. Paul's Church on the 8th and 9th of September in most solemn manner with a rich Hearse made like an Imperial Crown sustained with eight pillars and covered with black Velvet with a Valence fringed with gold and richly hanged with Scâ—tcheous Pennons and Banners of the French Kings Arms the principal mourner for the first day was the Lord Treasurer Paulet Marquis of Winchester assisted with ten other Lords Mourners with all the Heralds in black and their Coat-Armours uppermost The divine Offices performed by Doctor Matthew Parker Lord elect of Canterbury Doctor William Barlow Lord elect of Chichester and Doctor Iâ—hn Scory Lord elect of Hereford all sitting in the Throne of the Bishop of London no otherwise at that time than in hoods and Surplices by whom the Derige was executed at that time in the English toung The Funeral Sermon preached the next morning by the Lord of Hereford and a Communion celebrated by the Bishops then attired in Copes upon their Surplices At which time six of the chief mourners received the Sacrament and so departed with the rest to the Bishops Palace where a very liberal Entertainment was provided for them By which magnificency and the like this prudent Queen not onely kept â—er own reputation at the highest amongst forein Princes but caused the greater estimation to be had by the Catholick party of the Religion here established Anno Reg. Eliz. 2. A. D. 1559 1560. WE must begin this year with the Consecration of such new Bishops as were elected to succeed in the place of those which had been deprived the first of which was that of the most reverend Doctor Matthew Parker elected to the See of Canterbury on the first of August but not consecrated till the 17th of December following That Dignity had first been offered as is said by some to Doctor Nicholas Wotton Dean of Canterbury and York who grown in years and still a well-willer to the Pope desired to be excused from undertaking of a charge so weighty And some say it was offered unto Whitehead also who had been Chaplain to Anne Bollen the Queen's mother but he returned the like refusal though on other grounds as more inclined by reason of his long abode in Calvin's Churches to the Presbyterians than the Episcopal form of Government and it was happy for the Church might have been betrayed by his dissaffection that he did refuse it The Chair being better filled by Parker another of Queen Bollen's Chaplains but better principled and of a far more solid judgment in affairs of moment The Congeâ—d ' sleiur which opened him the way to this eminent Dignity bears date on the 18th day of July within few days after the deprivation of the former Bishops to satisfie the world in the Queens intention of preserving the Episcopal Government And therefore why the consecration was deferred so long maybe made a question some think it was that she might satisfie her self by putting the Church into a posture by her Visitation before she passed it over to the care of the Bishops others conceive that she was so enamoured with the power and title of Supream Governess that she could not deny her self that contentment in the exercise of it which the present Interval afforded For what are Titles without Power and what pleasure can be took in Power if no use be made of it And it is possible enough that both or either of these considerations might have some influence upon her But the main cause for keeping the Episcopal Sees in so long a vacancy must be found else-where An Act had passed in the late Parliament which never had the confidence to appear in print in the Preamble whereof it was declared That by dissolution of Religious Houses in the time of the late King her Majesties father many Impropriations Tithes and portions of Tithes had been invested in the Crown which the Queen being a Lady of a tender conscience thought not fit to hold nor could conveniently dismember from it without compensation in regard of the present low condition in which she found the Crown at her comming to it And thereupon it was enacted that in the vacancy of any Archbishoprick or Bishoprick it should be lawful for the Queen to issue out a Commission under the Great Seal for taking a survey of all Castles Mannors Lands Tenements and all other Hereditaments to the said Episcopal Sees belonging or appertaining and on the return of such surveys to take into her hands any of the said Castles Mannors Lands Tenements c. as to her seemed good giving to the said Archbishops or Bishops as much annual Rents to be raised upon Impropriations Tithes and portions of Tithes as the said Castles Mannors Lands c. did amount unto The Church Lands certified according to the antient Rents without consideration of the Casualties and other Perqâ—isites of Court which belonged unto them the Retribution made in Pensions Tithes and portions of Tithes extended at the utmost value from which no other profit was to be expected than the Rent it self Which Act not being to take effect
both Religions and finally amongst many other particulars that neither the Queen of Scots nor the French King should from thenceforth assume the Titles and Arms of England Which Articles being signed and confirmed for both Kingdoms the French about the middle of July take their leave of Scotland and the English Army at the same time set forward for Barwick being there disbanded and dismissed to their several dwellings Followed not long after by the Earls of Morton and Glencarn in the name of the rest of the Congregation sent purposely to render to the Queen their most humble thanks for her speedy prosperous assistance and to desire the continuance of her Majesties favours if the French should any more attempt to invade their Country Assured whereof and being liberally rewarded with gifts and presents they returned with joy and glad tydings to the Congregation whom as the Queen had put upon a present confidence of going vigorously on in their Reformation so it concerned them to proceed so carefully in pursuance of it as might comply with the dependence which they had upon her First therefore that she might more cordially espoâ—se their quarrel they bound themselves by their subscription to embrace the Liturgy with all the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England which for a time remained the onely form of Worship for the Kirk of Scotland when and by whose means they receded from it may be shown hereafter In the next place they cause a Parliament to be called in the month of August according to the Articles of the Pacification from which no person was excluded who either had the right of Suffrage in his own capacity or in relation to their Churches or as returned from their Shrevalties or particular Burroughs of which last there appeared the accustomed number but of the Lords Spiritual no more than six Bishops of thirteen with thirteen Abbots and Priors or thereabouts and of the Temporal Lords to the number of ten Earls and as many Barons By whose Authority and consent they passed three Acts conducing wholly to the advantage of the Reformation the first whereof was for abolishing the Popes Jurisdiction and Authority within the Realm the second for annulling all Statutes made in former times for maintenance of Idolatry and Superstition and the third for the punishment of the Sayers and Hearers of the Masse To this Parliament also some of the Ministers presented A Confession of the Faith and Doctrine to be believed and professed by the Protestants of the Kirk of Scotland modelled in many places by the Principles of Calvin's Doctrine which Knox had brought with him from Geneva but being put unto the Vote it was opposed by no more than three of the Temporal Lords that is to say the Earl of Atholl and the Lords Somervil and Borthwick who gave no other reason for it but that they would believe as their fathers did The Popish Prelates were silent in it neither assenting nor opposing Which being observed by the Earl-Marshal he is said to have broke out into these words following Seeing saith he that my Lords the Bishops who by their learning can and for the zeal they should have to the truth ought as I suppose to gainsay any thing repugnant to it say nothing against the Confession we have heard I cannot think but that it is the very truth of God and that the contrary of it false and deceivable Doctrine Let us now cross over into Ireland where we shall find the Queen as active in advancing the reformed Religion as she had been in either of the other Kingdoms King Henry had first broke the ice by taking to himself the Title of Supream Head on earth of the Church of Ireland exterminating the Popes authority and suppressing all the Monasteries and Religious Houses In matters doctrinal and forms of Worship as there was nothing done by him so neither was there much endeavoured in the time of King Edward it being thought perhaps unsafe to provoke that people in the Kings minority considering with how many troubles he was elsewhere exercised If any thing were done therein it was rather done by tolleration than command And whatsoever was so done was presently undone again in the Reign of Queen Mary But Queen Elizabeth having setled her affairs in England and undertaken the protection of the Scots conceived her self obliged in point of piety that Ireland also should be made partaker of so great a benefit A Parliament is therefore held on the 12th of January where past an Act restoring to the Crown the antient jurisdiction over all Ecclesiastical and Spiritual persons By which Statute were established both the Oath of Supremacy and the High Commission as before in England There also past an Act for the Uniformity of Common Prayer c. with a permission for saying the same in Latine in such Church or place where the Minister had not the knowledge of the English Tongue But for translating it into Irish as afterwards into Welsh in the 5th year of this Queen there was no care taken either in this Parliament or in any following For want whereof as also by not having the Scriptures in their native language most of the natural Irish have retained hitherto there old barbarous customes or pertinaciously adhere to the corruptions of the Church of Rome The people by that Statute are required under several penalties to frequent their Churches and to be frequent at the reading of the English Liturgy which they understand no more than they do the Mass. By which means the Iâ—ish was not only kept in continual ignorance as to the Doctrines and Devotions of the Church of England but we have furnished the Papists with an excellent Argument against our selves for having the Divine Service celebrated in such a language as the people do not understand There also past another Statute for restoring to the Crown the first fruits and twenty parts of all Ecclesiastical promotions within that Kingdom as also of all impropriat Parsonages which there are more in number than those Rectories which have cure of souls King Henry had before united the first fruits c. to the Crown Imperial but Queen Mary out of her affection to the Church of Rome had given them back unto the Clergy as before was said The like Act passed for the restitution of all such lands belonging to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem as by that Queen had been regranted to the Order with the avoidance of all Leases and other grants which had been made by Sir Oswald Massingberd the lâ—te Lord Prior of the same Who fearing what was like to follow had voluntarily forsook the Kingdome in the August foregoing and thereby saved the Queen the charge of an yearly pension which otherwise he might have had as his Predecessors had before him in the time of King Henry During the Reign of which King a Statute had been made in Ireland as in England also for the electing and consecrating of
her in short time not only to protect her Merchants but command the Ocean Of which the Spaniard found good proof to his great loss and almost to his total ruine in the last 20 years of her glorious government And knowing right well that mony was the â—inew of war she fell upon a prudent and present course to fill her coffers Most of the monies in the Kingdom were of forein coynage brought hither for the most part by the Easterling and Flemish Merchants These she called in by Proclamation â—â—ted the 15th of November being but two dayes before the end of this 3d. year commanding them to be brought to her Majesties Mint there to be coyned and take the stamp of her Royal authority or otherwise not to pass for current within this Realm which counsel took such good effect that monies came flowing into the Mint insomuch that there was weekly brought into the Tower of London for the space of half a year together 8000. 10000. 12000. 16000. 20000. 22000 l. of silver plate and as much more in Pistols and other gold of Spanish coins which were great sums according to the standard of those early dayes and therefore no small profit to be growing to her by the coynage of them The Genevians slept not all this while but were as busily imployed in practising upon the Church as were the Romanists in plotting against the Queen Nothing would satisfie them but the nakedness and simplicity of the Zuinglian Churches the new fashions taken up at Franckfort and the Presbyteries of Geneva According to the pattern which they saw in those mounts the Church of England is to be modell'd nor would the Temple of Jerusalem have served their turn if a new Altar fashioned by that which they found at Damascus might not have been erected in it And they drove on so fast upon it that in some places they had taken down the steps where the Aâ—tar stood and brought the Holy Table into the midst of the Church in others they had laid aside the antient use of Godfathers and Godmothers in the administration of Baptism and left the answering for the child to the charge of the father The weekly Fasts the time of Lent and all other dayes of abstinence by the Church commanded were looked upon as superstitious observations No fast by them allowed of but occasional only and then too of their own appointing And the like course they took with the Festivals also neglecting those which had been instituted by the Church as humane inventions not fit to be retained in a Church reformed And finally that they might wind in there outlandish Doctrines with such forein usages they had procured some of the inferiour Ordinaries to impose upon their several Parishes certain new books of Sermons and Expositions of the holy Scripture which neither were required by the Queens Injunctions nor by Act of Parliament Some abuses also were discovered in the Regular Clergy who served in Churches of peculiar or exempt jurisdiction Amongst whom it began to grow too ordinary to marry all such as came unto them without Bains or Licence and many times not only without the privity but against the express pleasure and command of their Parents For which those Churches past by the name of Lawlesse Churches in the voice of the people For remedy whereof it was found necessary by the Archbishop of Canterbury to have recourse unto the power which was given unto him by the Queens Commission and by a clause or passage of the Act of Parliament for the Uniformity of Common Prayer and Service in the Church c. As one of the Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical he was authorized with the rest of his associates according to the Statute made in that behalf To reform redresse order correct and amend all such Errours Heresies Schisms abuses offences conâ—empts and enormities whatsoever as might from time to time arise in the Church of England and did require to be redressed and reformed to the pleasure of Almighty God the increase of vertue and conservation of the peace and unity of the Kingdom And in the passage of the Act before remembred it was especially provided That all such Ornaments of the Church and of the Ministers thereof should be retained and be in use as were in the Church of England by authority of Parliament in the second year of the Reign of King Edward the 6th until further Order should be therein taken by authority of the Queens Majesty with the advice of her Commissioners Appointed Ordered under the Great Seal of England for Causes Ecclesiastical or of the Metropolitan of this Realm And also if there shall happen any contempt or irreverence to be used in the Ceremonies or Rites of the Church by the misusing of the Orders of the said Book of Common Prayer the Queens Majesty might by the like advice of the said Commissioners or Metropolitan Ordain or publish such further Ceremonies or Rites as should be most for the advance of Gods glory the edifying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs holy Mysteries and Sacraments Fortified and assured by which double power the Archbishop by the Queens consent and the advice of some of the Bishops Commissionated and instructed to the same intent sets forth a certain book of Orders to be diligently observed and executed by all and singular persons whom it might concern In which it was provided That no Parson Vicar or Curate of any exempt Church commonly called Lawless Churches should from thenceforth attempt to conjoin by solemnization of Matrimony any not being of his or their Parish Church without sufficient testimony of the Bains being ask'd in the several Churches where they dwel or otherwise were sufficiently licenced That there should be no other dayes observed for Holy days or Fasting dayes as of duty and commandment but only such Holy dayes as be expressed for Holy dayes in the Calendar lately set forth by the Queens authority and none other Fasting dayes to be so commanded but as the Lawes and Proclamations of the Queens Majesty should appoint that it should not be lawful to any Ordinary to assign or enjoyn the Parishes to buy any Books of Sermons or Expositions in any sort than is already or shall be hereafter appointed by publick Authority that neither the Curates or Parents of the children which are brought to Baptism should answer for them at the Font but that the antient use of Godfathers and Godmothers should be still retained and finally that in all such Churches in which the steps to the Altar were not taken down the said steps should remain as before they did that the Communion Table should be set in the said place where the steps then were or had formerly stood and that the Table of Gods Precepts should be fixed upon the wall over the said Communion Board Which passage compared with that in the Advertisements published in the year 1565. of which more hereafter make up this construction that
Cardinal Chastilion and other of the principal Leaders that they should put themselves under the protection of the Queen of England whâ— had not long before so seasonably relieved the Scots in the like distress No better counsel being offered nor any hope of succour to be had elsewhere the Vidame of Chartresse Governour at that time of the Port of Newhaven together with the Bayliâ—â— of Rowen the Seneshal of Diep and others made their address unto the Queen in the name of the Prince of Conde and of all the rest of the Confederates who professed the Gospel in that Kingdom they profered to her the said Towns whereof they had charge if it would please her Majesty to further their proceedings in defence of the Gospel as they called it And seemed to justifie their offer by a publick acknowledgement that her Majesty was not only true inheritour to those Towns but also to the whole Kingdom of France But neither their coming not their message was unknown unto her who had been secretly advertised of all passages there by Sir Nicholas Throgmorton a vigilant and dexterous man who being her Majesties Resident in that Kingdom had driven the bargain before hand and made all things in readiness against their coming Nor was the Queen hard to be intreated to appear in that cause which seemed so much to her advantage She was not ignorant of the pretensions of the Queen of Scots and the practices of her Uncles of the House of Guâ—se to advance her interess Who if they should possess themselves of all the strengths in the Dukedom of Normandy might from thence find an easie passage into England when she least looked for them On these and other considerations of the like importance it was agreed upon between them that the Queen should supply the Prince of Conde and his associates with a sufficient quantity of money corn and ammunition for the service of the French King against the plots and practices of the House of Guise that she should aid them with her forces both by land and sea for the taking in of such Castles Towns and Ports as were possessed by the faction of the said Duke that the said Prince of Conde and his associates should not come to any terms of peace with the opposite party without the privity and approbation of the Queen and that as well for securing the payment of all such monies as for the safe going in and out of all such forces as her Majesty should supply them with the Town and Port of Newhaven should be put unto her Majesties hands to be garrison'd by English souldiers and commanded by any person of quality whom her Majesty should authorise to keep and defend the same Immediately on which accord a Manifest was published in the name of the Queen in which it was declared how much she had preferred the peace of Christendom before her own particular intereâ—s that in persuance of that general affection to the publick peace she had relinquished her claim to the Town of Calais for the term of eight years when as all other Princes were restored by that Treaty to their lost estates that for the same reasons she had undertaken to preserve the Scots from being made vassals to the French without retaining any part of that Kingdom in her own possession after the service was performed that with the like bowels of commiseration she had observed how much the Queen-Mother of France was awed and the young King himself inthralled by the Guisian faction who in their names and under pretence of their authority endeavoured to root out the professors of the Reformed Religion that in persuance of that purpose they had caused such terrible massacres to be made at Vassey Paris Sene Tholouse â—loys Towers Angierâ— and other places that there were thought to be butchered no fewer than one hundred thousand of the naturall French between the first of March and the 20th of August then last past that with like violence and injustice they had treated such of her Majesties subjects as traded in the Ports of Bretagne whom they caused to be apprehended spoiled and miserably imprisoned such as endeavoured to preserve themselves to be cruelly killed their goods and merchandise to be seized without charging any other crime upon them but that they were Hâ—gonoâ—s and finally that in consideration of the Premises her Majesty could do no less than use her best endeavors for rescuing the French King and his Mother out of the power of that dangerous faction for aiding such of the French subjects as preferred the service of their King and the good of their Country before all other respects whatsoever for preserving the Reformed Religion from an universal destruction and the maintaining of her own subjects and Dominions in peace and safety Nor did she only publish the afoâ—esaid Manifest the better to satisfie all those whom it might concern in the reasons of her taking arms upon this occasion but she gives a more particulâ—â— account of it to the King of Spain whom she considered as the chief Patron of the Guisian League And knowing how unsafe it was for her to appear alone in a cause of that nature and importance she deals by Knollis and other of her Agents with the Princes of Germany to give their timely assistanâ—e to the Prince of Conde in maintenance of that Religion which themselves professed But howsoever not expecting the success of those counsels she proceeds to the supplying of the said Prince and his party with all things necessary for the war and sends over a sufficient strength of ships arms and men as well to scour the seas as secure the land The men amounting to 6000 were divided into two equal parts of which the one was destined to the defence of Rowen and Diepe then being in the hands of the Confederates the other to take possession of the Town of Newhaven which by the Townsmen and Inhabitants was joyfully surrender'd into the hands of the English The Town commodiously seated at the mouth of the Seine and having the command of a spacious Bay in former times not much observed or esteemed But being more carefully considered of by King Francis the first he caâ—sed the Bay to be inlarged the passages into iâ— cleared and the entrances of it to be strongly fortified which falling into the hands of any enemy might have destroyed the trade of Rowen and Paris being both built upon the River Called for this reason Franciscopolis by our Latine Writers Newhaven by the English Merchant and Haver d' Grace by reason of the beauty of it amongst the French it hath been looked on ever since as a place of consequence For her Commander in Chief she sends over the Lord Ambrose Dudley the eldest son then living of the late Duke of Northumberland whom on the 26th of December she had created Lord Lislâ— and Earl of Warwick And he accordingly preparing for his passage over took shipping at Portsmouth on the 17th
man as might please her fancy and more secure her title to the Crown of England than any of the great Kings in Europe What then should hinder her from making up a mariage so agreeable to her so acceptable to the Catholick party in both Kingdoms and which she thought withall of so safe a condition as could create no new jealousies in the brest of Elizabeth But those of the Leicestrian faction conceived otherwise of it and had drawn most of the Court and Council to conceive so to For what could more secure the interess of the Queen of Scots than to corroborate her own Title with that of Darnly from which two what children soever should proceed they would draw to them many hearts in the Realm of England who now stood fair and faithful to their natural Queen In this great fear but made much greater of set purpose to create some trouble it was advised that the Queen should earnestly be intreated to think of mariage to the end that the succession might be setled in her own posterity that all Popish Justices whereof there were many at that time might be put out of Commission and none admitted to that office but such as were sincerely affected to the Reformed Religion that the old deprived Bishops which for the most part lived at liberty might be brought to a more close restraint for fear of hardning some in their errours and corrupting others with whom they had the freedom of conversation that a greater power might be conferred upon the English Bishops in the free exercise of their jurisdiction for suppressing all such Popish Books as were sent into England depriving the English Fugitives of all those Benefices in this Kingdom which hitherto they had retained and all this to be done without incurring the danger of a Premunire with which they were so often threatned by the common Lawyers It was advised also that for a counterpoise unto the Title of the Queen of Scots some countenance should be given to the House of Suffolk by shewing favour to the Earl of Hartford and the Lady Katherine and that to keep the ballance even with the Romish Catholicks some moderation should be used to such Protestant Ministers you may be sure the Earl of Leicester had a hand in this as hitherto had been opposiâ—e in external matters to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church here by Law established Nor was this mariage very pleasing to the Scots themselves the chief Lords of the Romish party who faithfully had adher'd to their natural Queen in all her former troubles conceived that some of them might be as capable of the Queens affections as a young Gentleman born in England and one that never had done any service which might enoble and prefer him before all the rest The Ministers exclaimed against it in their common preachings as if it were designed of purpose to destroy Religion and bring them under their old vassalage to the Church of Rome The Noble men and others of the Congregation who had sold themselves to Queen Elizabeth were governed wholly by her Counsels and put themselves into a posture of Arms to disturb the Maâ—ch the Edenburgers do the like but are quickly scatter'd and forc'd to submit themselves to their Queens good pleasure who was so bent upon her mariage with this young Nobleman that neither threatnings nor perswasions could divert her from it And thaâ— he might appear in some capacity fit for the mariage of a Queen she first confers upon him the Order of Knighthood and afterwards creats him Baron of Ardamanack Earl of Rosse and Duke of Rothsay which are the ordinary Titles of the eldest and second sons of Scotland In May she had convented the Estates of Scotland to whom she communicated her intention with the reasons of it Which by the greatest part of the Assembly seemed to be allowed of none but the Lord Ochiltrie opposing what the rest approved About the middle of July the mariage Rites were celebrated in the Royal Chapel by the Dean of Restairig and the next day the new Duke was proclaimed King by sound of Trumpet and declared to be associated with the Queen in the publick government The newes whereof being brought unto Queen Elizabeth she seemed more offended than indeed she was For well she knew that both the new King and the Earl his Father were men of plain and open natures not apt to entertain any dangerous counsels to the disturbance of her quiet that as long as she retained the Countesse with her who was the Mother of the one and the Wife of the other they seemed to stand bound to their good behaviour and durst act nothing to the prejudice of so dear a pledge but by the precipitation of this mariage the Queen of Scots had neither fortified her self in the love of her people nor in alliances abroad and that it could not otherwise be but some new troubles must break out in Scotland upon this occasion by which it would be made uncomfortable and inglorious to her And so it proved in the event for never was mariage more calamitous to the parties themselves or more dishonourable to that Nation or finally more scandalous to both Religions in nothing fortunate but in the birth of James the 6th born in the Palace of Edenborough on the 19th of July Anno 1566. solemnly Crowned King of the Scots on the same day of the Month Anno 1567. and joyfully received to the Crown of England on the 14th of March Anno 1602. In greater glory and felicity reigned the Queen of England Whose praise resounding in all Kingdoms of the North and West invited Caecille sister to the King of Sweden and wife of Christopher Marquisse of Baden to undertake a tedious journey both by land and sea from the furthest places of the North to see the splendor of her Court and observe the prudence of her Government Landing at Dover in the beginning of September they were there received by the Lord Cobham with a goodly train of Knights and Gentlemen at Canterbury by the Lady Cobham with the like honourable train of Ladies and Gentlewomen at Gravesend by the Lord Hunsdon with the band of Pensioners at London on the 11th of September by the Earl of Sussex and his Countesse who waited on them to the Lodging appointed for them Scaâ—â—e had she rested there four dayes when she fell into a new travel of which she was happily delivered by the birth of a son whom the Queen Christned in her own person by the name of Edwardus Fortunatus the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Duke of Norfolk being Sureties with her at the Font. She called him Edward with relation to the King her brother whose memory she dearly loved and Fortunatus in regard that he came so luckily into the world when his Mother after a most painful pilgrimage was safely come to pay her Devotions at that Shrine which she so much honoured Having remained here till the April
not be affirmed of England in the times preceding so neither can it now be said of any State or Nation in the Christian world in all which there are several sorts of copper mony as current with them for publick uses as the purest metal She provided also in like manner for her peoples safety and the encrease of Trade and Merchandise in English Bottoms For towards the end of this second year she made great preparation of Ordinance Arms Munition and Powder of her own materials to be in a readiness to defend her Realm in all emergencies of danger For the advancing of which service it so pleased the divine Providence which watched over her actions that a rich Mine of Brass was found near Keswick in Cumberland such as sufficed not onely for furnishing her own Forts and Ships with all manner of Ordinance but for supplying other Countries as their wants required And to compleat so great a mercy in her preservation the Stone called Lapis Calaminaris exceeding necessary for all Brass-works was at the same time also found in England in most plentiful manner And whereas complaint was made unto her by the Merchants of the Hans-towns or Merchants of the Stilyard as then commonly called that King Edward had first ceized their Liberties and that afterwards Queen Mary had raised their Customs upon all sorts of Merchandises from one to twenty in the Hundred her Answer was That as she was resolved not to Innovate any thing so she could grant no other privileges and immunities to them than those in which she found them when she came to the Crown Their Trading hereupon being intermitted the English Merchants took the managing of it upon themselves and thrived therein so well after some adventures that Cloth and other Manufactures heretofore transported in the ships of those Merchants were from henceforth fraughted and dispersed in English Vessels By means whereof the English in a very short time attained unto the reputation of being the wealthiest Merchants the most expert Mariners and the ablest Commanders for Sea-fights of any Nation in the world I shall conclude this year with a work of piety in the foundation of the Collegiat Church of St. Peter in Westminster which in the space of twenty years had been changed from an Abbey to a Deanry from a Deanry to a See Episcopal reduced unto a Deanry again and finally restored to the state of an Abbey But the Abbey being dissolved in the foregoing Parliament an offer was made to Fecknam and the rest of the Convent if Sanders be to be believed in this particular for continuing in their places and possessions as before they did clogged with no other conditions than the taking of the Oath of Supremacy and officiating all divine Offices by the English Liturgy But this offer being by them rejected the Act of dissolution passed in both Houses of Parliament Concerning which there goes a story that the Lord Abbot being then busied in planting some young Elms in the Deans yard there one that came by advised him to desist from his purpose telling him That the Bill was just then passed for dissolving his Monastery To which the good old man replied That he resolved howsoever to go on with his work being well assured that that Church would be always kept for an encouragement and seat of Learning And so it proved in the event for the Queen having pleased her self in the choice of some of the best Lands which remained unto it confirmed the rest upon that Church which she caused to be called the Collegiat Church of St. Peter in Westminster as appears by her Letters Parens bearing date in the second year of her most gracious and most prosperous Reign A foundation of a large capacity and as amply privileged consisting of a Dean and twelve secular Canons two School masters and forty Scholars petit Canons and others of the Quire to the number of thirty ten Officers belonging to the Church and as many servants appertaining to the College diet and twelve Alms-men besides many Officers Stewards Receivers and Collectors for keeping Courts and bringing in of their Revenue the principal of which called the High Steward of Westminster hath ever since been one of the prime Nobility and in great favour at the Court The Dean entrusted with keeping the Regalia honored with a place of necessary service at all Coronations and a Commissioner for the Peace within the City of Westminster and the Liberties of it by Act of Parliament The Dean and Chapter vested with all manner of jurisdiction both Ecclesiastical and Civil not onely within the City and liberties of Westminster but within the precinct of St. Martins le grand and some Towns of Essex exempted in the one from the Bishop of London and in the other from the power of the Archbishop of Canterbury The Scholars annually preferred by election either to Christ-Church in Oxon or Trinity College in Cambrige each College being bound by an Indenture made with Queen Elizabeth to take off yearly two or three at the least though since that number is extended to four or five to be preferred to Scholarships Fellowships in their several Houses A College founded as it proved in such a happy conjuncture that since this new foundation of it it hat given breeding and preferment to four Archbishops two Lord Chancellors or Lord Keepers of the Great Seal of England twenty two Bishops and thirteen Deans of cathedral Churches besides Archdeacons and Prebendaries and other dignitaries in the Church to a proportionable number which is more than can be said of either of the two famous Colleges of Aeton and Winchester or of both together though the one was founded 168 and the other 114 years before it Anno Reg. Eliz. 3. A. D. 1560 1561. WE shall begin this third year of the Queen with the death of Francis the second King of the French who deceased on the 5th day of December when he had scarce lived to the end of his 17th year and had Reigned but one year and five months or thereabouts His death much altered both the counsels and affairs of Christendom distracting the French Nation into schisms and â—actions incouraging the Sâ—ots to proceed with confidence in their Reformation and promising no small security to Queen Elizabeth in regard of the pretensions of the Queen of Scots But so little was her condition bettered by it that she seemed to be in more danger by the acts of her enemies after his decease than formerly in the time of his life and government Francis of Gâ—ise a man of great abilities for Camp and Counsel had made himself a very strong party in the Court of France which he intended to make use of for the Queen of Scots whose Mother the late Queen Regent of Scotland was his only sister And this he might the better do by reason of a division in the Court of France about the government of the Kingdom during the minority of Charls